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HISTOEY   OF   THE   WORLD, 


FEOM   THE 


EARLIEST  RECOEDS  TO  TPIE  PRESENT  TIME. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  WORLD, 


EARLIEST  RECORDS  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME. 


PHILIP  SMITH,  B.A., 


ONE  OF  THE  PKINCIPAL  CONTEIBXTTOES  TO    THE    DICTIONAEIES  OF  GEEEK  AND   EOMAN  ANTIQUITIES 
BIOQEAFHT,  AND  GEOQBAFHT. 


VOL.  L 

a:n'oiee^t  histoey. 

FROM  THE  CREATION  OF  THE  WORLD  TO    THE   ACCESSION   OF   PHILIP 

OF  MACEDON. 


3IIustrattII  ig  Iblaps,  pans,  an&  sEnarabin^s. 


NEW  YORK: 
D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  443  &  445  BROADWAY. 

1865. 


V,    \ 


HEKEY  MALDE^,  M.A., 

LATE    FELLOW  OF    TRINITY  COLLEGE,  CAMBBIDOE,  PEOFE890K   OF    GREEK    IN    TINIVERSITy    COUiEGE, 

LONDON, 


Wais  Sfilork  is  i3tl)itattt), 

IN   ADMIRATION   OF   HIS   PROFOUND   AND   ELEGANT   SCHOLARSHIP, 

AND 
AS   A   TRIBUTE   OF   GRATIS..  JDE   FOR   THE   LASTING   BENEFITS   OF   HIS   TEACHING. 


PKEFACE. 


Since  Sir  Walter  Ealeigli  solaced  his  imprisonment  in  the 
Tower  by  the  composition  of  his  "  History  of  the  World,"  the 
Literature  of  England  has  never  achieved  the  work  which  he  left 
unfinished.  There  have  been  "  Universal  Histories,"  from  the 
bulk  of  an  encyclopaedia  to  the  most  meagre  outKne,  in  which 
the  annals  of  each  nation  are  separately  recorded ;  but  the  attempt 
has  not  yet  been  made  to  trace  the  story  of  Divine  Providence 
and  human  progress  in  one  connected  narrative,  preserving  that 
organic  unity  which  is  the  chief  aim  of  this  "  History  of  the 
World." 

The  story  of  our  whole  race,  like  that  of  each  sej)arate  nation, 
has  "  a  beginning,  a  middle,  and  an  end."  That  story  we  pro- 
pose to  follow,  from  its  beginning  in  the  Sacred  Records,  and 
from  the  dawn  of  civilization  in  the  East, — through  the  successive 
Oriental  Empires, — the  rise  of  liberty,  and  the  perfection  of 
heathen  polity,  arts,  and  literature  in  Greece  and  Rome, — the 
change  which  passed  over  the  face  of  the  world  when  tlie  light  of 
Christianity  sprung  up, — the  origin  and  first  appearance  of  those 
barbarian  races,  which  overthrew  both  divisions  of  the  Roman 
Empire, — the  annals  of  the  States  which  rose  on  the  Empii-e's 


viii  PREFACE. 

niins,  including  the  picturesque  details  of  medieval  history  and 
the  steady  progress  of  modern  liberty  and  civilization, — and  the 
extension  of  these  influences,  by  discover}'',  conquest,  colonization, 
and  Christian  missions,  to  the  remotest  regions  of  the  earth.  In 
a  word,  as  separate  histories  reflect  the  detached  scenes  of  liunian 
action  and  sufiering,  our  aim  is  to  bring  into  one  view  the  several 
parts  which  assuredly  form  one  great  whole,  moving  onwards, 
under  the  guidance  of  Divine  Providence,  to  the  unknown  end 
ordained  in  the  Divine  purposes. 

Such  a  work,  to  be  really  useful,  must  be  condensed  into  a 
moderate  compass  ;  else  the  powers  of  the  writer  would  be  frit- 
tered away,  and  the  attention  of  the  reader  wearied  out,  by  an 
overwhelming  bulk,  filled  up  with  microscopic  details.  The 
more  striking  facts  of  history, — the  rise  and  fall  of  empires, — the 
achievements  of  warriors  and  heroes, — the  struggles  of  peoples 
for  their  rights  and  freedom, — the  conflict  between  priestcraft  and 
religious  liberty, — must  needs  stand  out  on  the  canvas  of  such  a 
picture  with  the  prominence  they  claim  in  the  world  itself.  But 
they  will  not  divert  our  attention  from  the  more  quiet  and  influ- 
ential working  of  science  and  art,  social  progress  and  individual 
thought, — the  living  seed  sown,  and  the  fruit  borne,  in  the  field 
broken  up  by  those  outward  changes. 

"While  special  care  is  bestowed  on  those  periods  and  nations, 
the  history  of  which  is  scarcely  to  be  found  in  any  works  accessible 
to  the  general  reader,  the  more  familiar  parts  of  history  are  treated 
in  their  due  proportion  to  the  whole  work.  It  is,  we  trust,  by  no 
means  the  least  valuable  part  of  the  design,  that  the  portions  of 
history  which  are  generally  looked  at  by  themselves, — those,  for 
example,  of  Greece  and  Kome,  and  of  our  own  country, — are 
regarded  from  a  common  point  of  view  with  all  the  rest ;  a  view 


PREFACE.  ix 

which  may,  in  some  cases,  modify  the  conclusions  di*awn  by 
classical  partiality  and  national  pride. 

The  spirit  of  the  work, — at  least  if  the  execution  is  true  to  the 
conception, — will  be  found  equally  removed  from  narrow  partisan- 
ship and  affected  indifference.  The  historian,  as  well  as  the  poet, 
must  be  in  earnest, 

"  Dower'd  with  the  hate  of  hate,  the  scorn  of  scom, 
The  love  of  love  ;  " 

but  he  must  also  be  able  to  look  beyond  the  errors,  and  even  the 
virtues,  of  his  fellow-men,  to  the  great  ends  which  the  Supreme 
Kuler  of  events  works  out  by  their  agency : — 

"  Yet  I  doubt  not  through  the  ages  one  increasing  purpose  runs, 
And  the  thoughts  of  men  are  widen'd  with  the  process  of  the  suns." 

The  vast  progress  recently  made  in  historical  and  critical  in- 
vestiorations,  the  results  obtained  from  the  modern  science  of  com- 
parative  philology,  and  the  discoveries  which  have  laid  open  new 
sources  of  information  concerning  the  East,  afford  such  facilities 
as  to  make  the  present  a  fit  epoch  for  our  undertaking. 


April,  1864. 


DIYISIOI^  OF  THE  WORK. 


I.— ANCIENT  HISTORY,  SACRED  AXD  SECULAR;  FROM  THE  CREATION 
TO  THE  FALL  OF  THE  WESTERN  EMPIRE,  in  a.d.  476.     Two  Vols. 

IL— MEDIEVAL  HISTORY,  CIVIL  AXD  ECCLESLiSTICAL ;  FROM  THE  FALL 
OF  THE  WESTERN  EMPIRE  TO  THE  TAKING  OF  CONSTANTINOPLE 
BY  THE  TURKS,  in  a.d,  1453.    Two  Volumes. 

III.— MODERN  HISTORY;  FROM  THE  FALL  OF  THE  BYZANTINE  EMPIRE 
TO  OUR  OWN  TIMES.    ForR  Volumes. 


conte:n^ts. 


INTRODUCTION. 

PAGB 

The  subject  proposed — Its  unity — Province  of  history — Distinguished  from  philo- 
sophy and  science,  in  its  nature  and  its  evidence — Illustration  from  the  origin 
of  the  world,  as  regarded  in  the  lights  of  history  and  science  respectively — 
Relations  of  primeval  history  to  astronomy,  geology,  physical  geography,  chro- 
nology, and  theology — Methods  of  historical  inquiry — Epochs  and  periods  of 
history — Moments  of  origination  and  of  development — Epochs  of  revolution  and 
periods  of  repose — Example  of  a  successful  method  in  Gibbon's  great  work — 
Note  on  Scripture  Chronology 3 — 12 


BOOK  I. 

THE  PATRIARCHAL  AGE,  AND  THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE  NATIONS. 
From  the  Creation  to  the  Exodus. — b.c.  4004  to  b.c.  1491. 

CHAPTER  I. 

The  Creation  of  the  World,  and  the  First  State  of  Man. 
The  earliest  historical  records  are  in  the  books  of  Moses — Their  original  purpose 
and  historical  value — Mosaic  account  of  the  creation — Its  mode  of  revelation — 
Its  successive  stages — Primeval  state  of  man — Institution  of  marriage — Origin 
of  language — Adam's  study  of  God's  works — The  garden  of  Eden — Its  probable 
locality — Condition  and  occupations  of  the  first  man — His  creation  in  the  image 
of  God 13—18 

CHAPTER  II. 
From  the  Fall  to  the  Deluge;  or,  the  Catastrophe  of  Sin. 
First  revolutionary  epoch  in  history — Sin  and  grace — The  fall  of  man — The  curse 
and  promise — Conflict  of  good  and  evil — Cain  and  Abel — The  Cainite  and 
Sethite  races — Energy  and  lawlessness  of  the  Cainites — Lamech's  polygamy  and 
murder — Religion  of  the  Sethites — Intermarriage  of  the  races,  and  consequent 
corruption  of  man — Moral  and  material  condition  of  the  Antediluvians — The 
deluge — Difficulties  in  the  narrative — Destruction  and  restoration  of  the  world 
— God's  covenant  of  forbearance  made  with  Noah — Traditions  of  the  flood — 
Antediluvian  longevity 19 — 26 

CHAPTER  III. 

The  Post-Diluvian  World,  from  the  Deluge  to  the  Dispersion  ;  or, 
Man's  Second  Probation  and  Fall. 
The  Noachic  precepts — Abstinence  from  blood — Sentence  against  murder — The 
principle  of  law  and  the  authority  of  the  magistrate — Origin  of  civil  society — 
The  patriarchal  constitution — Authority  of  the  patriarch  both  civil  and  religious 
— Remnants  of  the  patriarchal  form  of  government — Incidents  of  the  post-dilu- 
vian history — Noah's  fall,  and  Ham's  insult — The  prophetic  curse  and  blessings 
on  Ham,  Shem,  and  Japheth — Division  of  the  Earth  in  the  time  of  Peleg — Mon- 
archy of  Nimrod — City  and  tower  of  Babel — Confusion  of  tongues  .        .        27 — 32 


xii  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Division  of  the  Nations. 

I'AGB 

The  common  orif^in  of  mankind  attested  by  the  positive  statement  of  Scripture — 
Collateral  evidence  of  science,  especially  from  language — Tripartite  origin  of 
the  nations — (Jcograpliieal  survey  of  the  lands  first  peopled — Central  point  in 
the  highlands  of  j^rmenia — The  triple  continent  of  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa, 
viewed  in  its  physical  forniatioii — The  northern  plain,  the  great  desert  zone,  the 
mountain  chains,  and  the  suhjincnt  cduutries — Basin  of  the  Mediterranean — 
Outlying  parts  of  the  world — Distribution  of  the  several  races  from  the  original 
centre  in  Armenia — The  Mosaic  history  gives  only  the  commencement  of  the 
process — Form  of  the  record  ethnic  rather  than  personal — The  Aryan  and 
Semitic  languages  and  races — Connexion  of  Shemite  and  Ilamite  races — Geo- 
graphical distribution  of  the  three  families — Japheth — Ham — Shem — Languages 
of  the  resi)ective  races — Modem  classification  by  races  or  varieties  of  mankind 
— The  Caucasian— The  Turanian— The  Kigritian— The  Malay — The  American 
— Meaning  of  "  Aboriginal  "  tribes — Coneludmg  remarks  .         .         .     33 — 57 

CHAPTER  V. 

Early  History  of  the  Hebrew  Race.     From  the  call  of  Abraham  to  the 
Exodus.— B.C.  1921  to  b.c.  1491. 

The  Hebrews  not  the  most  ancient  nation — Reason  for  their  precedence — The  line 
of  Shem  to  Aljraham — Ur  of  the  Chaldees,  its  probable  site — Call  of  Abram 
and  migration  of  Terah's  family — First  settlement  at  Charran — Abram's  journey 
into  Canaan  to  the  valley  of  Shechem — Removal  to  Egypt  and  return  to  Bethel 
— Separation  from  Lot — The  cities  of  the  Plain — Expedition  of  Chedorlaomer 
— The  tribes  of  the  Canaanites — Abram  at  Hebron — His  subsccjuent  history — 
Birth  and  marriage  of  Isaac — Death  of  Sarah — Birth  of  Esau  and  Jacob — De- 
struction of  Sodom  and  Gomorrha — Origin  of  the  nations  of  Moab  and  Ammon, 
the  Ishmaelite  and  Keturaitc  Arabs— Life  of  Isaac — Esau  and  Jacob — The 
Edomites — Jacob  in  Padan-aram — His  return  to  Canaan — Aflfliirs  at  Shechem — 
Journey  to  the  south — Removal  into  Egypt — The  captivity — Close  of  the  patri- 
archal age — The  Exodus — An  epoch  in  the  world's  history        .        .        .     58 — 66 


BOOK  II. 

THE  GREAT  MONARCHIES  OF  THE  EAST. 
From  the  Earliest  Egyptian  Traditions  to  the  Reign  of  Darius  Htstaspis. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

The  History  of  Egypt  to  the  Shepherd  Invasion. — b.c.  2717?  to  b.c.  2080? 

Antiquity  of  Egypt — Names  of  the  country — Geography  of  Egypt — The  Nile — Its 
inundation — Limits  and  area  of  Egypt — Ancient  condition  and  productions — 
Advantages  of  its  position — Relation  to  its  neighbours — Original  population — A 
mixed  race,  chiefly  llamitic — Authorities — Scripture — Greek  writers — Monu- 
ments and  Pajiyri — Egyjitian  writing — Manetho — Astronomical  records — Date 
of  the  Pyramids — Egyptian  technical  chronology — Historical  chronology — Tra- 
ditional history — Rule  of  the  Gods — First  djTiasty  :  Mencs — Second  dj-nasty  : 
Queen  Nitocris — Memiihite  dynasties :  third,  fourth,  and  sixth — High  state  of 
civilization — Ileradeopolite  dj-nastics  :  ninth  and  tenth — Theban  kingdom  : 
eleventh  and  tweltlh  dynasties — Invasion  of  the  shepherds — Monuments  of  the 
early  Pharaohs — Pyramids  and  tombs — Egj-ptian  belief  concerning  the  dead — 
Description  of  the  pyramids 67 — 107 


CONTENTS.  xiii 

CHAPTER  yil. 

History  of  Egypt  from  the  Shepherd  Invasion  to  the  Final  Coxqcest  by  Persia. 
B.C.  2080?  TO  B.C.  353. 

PJGE 

The  shepherd  kings,  or  Hyksos,  the  fifteenth,  sixteenth,  and  seventeenth  dynasties 
of  Manetho — Their  connexion  with  the  Scripture  history — Question  of  the  Exo- 
dus— Connexion  of  Egypt  with  Greece — Expulsion  of  the  shepherds — Union  of 
Egjpt — The  city  of  Thebes — Twelfth  and  thirteenth  dynasties — Eighteenth  and 
nineteenth,  the  climax  of  Egyptian  power  and  art — Eighteenth  dynasty :  the 
Thothmes — Amenoph  III. — The  vocal  Memnon — The  sun-worshippers — Xine- 
teenth  dynasty:  Scthee  I. — Rameses  II. — "Sesostris" — Asiatic  conquests — 
Stelae — Temples  at  Thebes  and  Memphis,  and  in  Ethiopia — Colossal  statues — 
Men-ptah — Twentieth  dynasty :  Rameses  III. — Decline  of  the  kingdom — Twenty- 
first  dynasty  at  Tanis — Semitic  influence  in  Egypt — Twenty-second  dynasty  at 
Bubastis — Assyrians — Shishak  and  Rehoboam — Zerah  the  Cushite — Twenty- 
third  dynasty  at  Tanis — Obscurity  and  decUne — Twenty-fourth  d\-nasty — Boc- 
choris  the  wise — Twenty-fifth  dynasty,  of  Ethiopians — The  Sabacos  and  Tirhakah 
— Hoshea,  king  of  Israel — Sennacherib  and  Hezekiah — Legend  of  the  priest 
Sethos — The  dodecarchy — Twenty-sixth  dynasty  at  Sais — Psammetichus  I. — 
Greek  mercenaries — Siege  of  Ashdod — Secession  of  the  soldiers — Xeko  or 
Pharaoh-Necho — War  with  Nebuchadnezzar — Death  of  Josiah — Circumnaviga- 
tion of  Africa — Xeko's  canal — Psammetichus  II. — Apries  or  Pharaoh-IIophra 
— Nebuchadnezzar  in  Egypt — War  with  Cyrene — Revolt  of  the  army — Death 
of  Apries — Reign  of  Aahmes  II.  or  Amasis — His  monuments — His  character 
and  habits — Internal  prosperit}- — Intercourse  with  Greece — Psammenitus — 
Conquest  of  Egypt  by  Camljyses — The  twenty-seventh,  or  Persian  dynasty — 
Revolt  of  Inarus  and  Amyrtajus — Egypt  again  independent — Twenty-ninth  and 
thirtieth  dynasties — The  Xectanebos,  &c. — I 'inal  I'ersiau  conquest — Alexander 
and  the  Ptolemies 108—142 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
The  Hebrew  Theocracy  and  Monarchy. — b.c.  1491  to  b.c.  508. 

Destiny  of  the  Hebrew  nation — Review  of  their  history  in  Egvpt — Joseph — The 
Israelites  in  Goshen — The  oppression — Moses:  as  an  Eg}"ptian  prince — His 
flight — His  divine  legation — The  plagues,  the  passover,  and  the  exodus — 
Heathen  traditions  of  the  exodus — March  to  Sinai — The  Mosaic  law — The  wil- 
derness— Conquest  of  Penea — Death  of  Moses — Campaigns  of  Joshua — Division 
and  settlement  of  Canaan — Times  of  the  Judges — Servitude  to  the  Philistines — 
Samuel,  prophet  and  judge — The  kingdom — Saul — David — Full  conquest  of  the 
land — Jerusalem,  the  capital  and  sanctuary — Solomon — Israel  a  great  monarchy 
— Building  of  the  temple — Solomon's  idolatries — Foreign  enemies  and  internal 
factions — Division  of  the  two  kingdoms — Their  separate  history — Steady  declen- 
sion of  Israel — Foreign  alliances  and  idolatries — The  prophets — Elijah  and 
Elisha — Relations  to  Syria,  Judah,  Assyria,  and  Egypt — Captivity  of  the  ten 
tribes — Their  subsequent  fate — Kingdom  of  Judah — Idolatries  and  reforms — 
Asa — Jehosliaphat — The  high  priest  Jehoiada — Uzziah — Idolatries  of  Ahaz 
— The  prophets,  especially  Isaiah — Wars  with  Israel  and  Syria — Hezekiah — 
Destruction  of  Sennacherib — Josiah — Invasion  of  Pharaoh-Xecho — Nebuchad- 
nezzar— The  captivity — Condition  of  the  Jews  during  the  captivity        .     143 — 187 


CHAPTER  IX. 

The  Chaldean,  Assyrian,  and  Babylonian  Empires. 

Empires  on  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris — Description  of  Jlesopotamia — The  great  plain 
of  Chaldaea — Its  boundaries  and  extent — Its  physical  character — Inundations 
and  canals — Climate — Xatural  products — Animals — Minerals — Brick-making — 
Biblical  history  of  Chalda;a — Babel — Ximrod — The  Chaldfean  race — Their 
Cushite  origin  and  language— Meanings  of  the  Chaldaean  name  for  a  tribe,  a 


xlv  CONTENTS. 


nation,  and  a  caste — Traces  of  a  still  earlier  Turanian  population — The  dynasties 
of  Berosus — Astronomical  records  contemporary  with  the  beginning  of  the  mon- 
archy— Its  epoch — Dynasty  of  Nimrod — Two  divisions  of  Chaldsea,  each  with 
its  tetrapolis — Cities  sacred  to  the  lieavcnly  bodies — The  Chaldacan  temple- 
towers — Their  design,  form,  materials,  and  mins — Cuneiform  inscriptions — 
Stages  in  the  invention  of  writing — Interpretation  of  the  inscriptions — History 
of  the  earlier  Chalda-an  dynasty— Nimrod,  the  founder — Urukh,  the  builder,  the 
first  king  named  on  the  inscriptions — Later  Chaldean  dynasty — Chedorlaomer, 
the  comiueror — Semitic  migrations,  Abraham  and  the  Pha-nicians — The  "Four 
Nations  "  of  Chaldica — Check  to  Clialdaean  conquests — Overthrow  of  the  mon- 
archy by  the  Aralis — Growth  of  Semitic  influence — The  Chaldajan  caste  and 
learning  survive — Chaldacan  art  and  science — Architecture,  temples,  houses,  and 
tombs — Pottery — Implements — Metal-work — Textile  fabrics — Arithmetic  and 
astronomy — Weights  and  measures — The  Assyrian  empire — Greek  traditions — 
The  upper  dynasty — Tiglath-Pileser  I. — Sardanapalus — Shahnaneser  I. — The 
black  obelisk — Pul — Scmiramis — The  lower  dynasty — Tiglath-Pileser  II. — Shal- 
maneser  II. — Sargon — Contjuest  of  Media — Sennacherib — Esarhaddon — Baby- 
lon subject  to  Assyria — The  Sardanapalus  of  the  Greeks — Fall  of  Nineveh — 
Later  Babylonian  empire — Nabonassar  and  Scmiramis — Merodach-Baladan — 
Esarhaddon — Nabopolassar — Wars  with  Lydia  and  Egj-pt — Nebuchadnezzar — 
Evil-Merodach  and  his  successors — Nabonadius — League  against  Persia — Bel- 
shazzar — Fall  of  Babylon — Its  later  history 188 — 243 


CHAPTER  X. 

The  Medo-Persian  Empire,  from  its  Origin  to  its  Settlement  under  Daritts 
Hystaspis. — B.C.  633?  to  b.c.  531. 

Description  of  Media — Its  earliest  inhabitants — The  Medes  an  Aryan  race  and  kin- 
dred to  the  Persians — Their  relations  to  Assyria — Rise  of  the  Median  kingdom 
— Doubtful  legends — Deioces  and  Phraortes — Cyaxares  the  true  founder — His 
contest  with  the  Scythians — Military  organization  of  the  Medes — Conquests  of 
Cyaxares — Destruction  of  Nineveh — Rise  of  the  Lydian  empire — The  nations  of 
Asia  Minor — The  Halys  an  ethnic  boundary — Affinities  of  the  western  nations 
— Early  kingdoms  in  Asia  Minor — Gordius — Midas — Troy — Lydia — Natural  re- 
sources of  the  country — Mythical  period  of  Lydian  story — Dynasty  of  the  Hera- 
clids — Candaules  and  Gyges — Dynasty  of  the  Mermnads — Conquests  in  Asia 
Minor — Attacks  on  the  Greek  colonies — Invasion  of  the  Cimmerians  under 
Ardys — Alyattes — Their  expulsion  by  Alyattes — War  between  Lydia  and  Media 
— The  "  eclipse  of  Thales" — Deaths  of  Cyaxares  and  Alyattes — The  tomb  of 
Alyattes — Croesus  as  viewed  by  Herodotus — His  real  history — Astyages  the  last 
king  of  Media — Reign  of  Astyages — Peaceful  state  of  Western  Asia — Origin  of 
the  Persian  race — Description  of  the  country — The  Persian  language — ReHgion 
of  the  Medes  and  Persians — Magian  elemental  worship,  originally  Turanian — 
Dualism  the  old  Persian  faith — Auramazda  and  Ahriman — Mixture  and  conflict 
of  the  two  systems — Zoroaster — His  doctrines  and  legendary  history — The  ten 
tribes  of  the  Persians — Their  military  organization  and  general  discipline — 
DjTiasty  of  the  Achacmenidaj — Their  relation  to  Media — Legendary  story  of 
Cyrus — Transfer  of  the  Median  empire  to  Persia — Cyrus  in  the  Cyropasdia  and 
in  Scripture — The  conquest  of  Lydia,  the  Greek  colonies,  and  Babylon — Resto- 
ration of  the  Jews — Designs  on  Egypt — Wars  in  Central  Asia — Death  of  Cjtus 
— Cambysesr-Conquest  of  Egypt — ^His  madness  and  death — The  Magian  Pseudo- 
Smerdis — Accession  of  Darius  the  son  of  Hystaspis — Survey  of  the  Persian  Em- 
pire— Note  on  the  Behistun  Inscription 244 — 298 


CONTENTS. 


BOOK  ni. 

fflSTORY  OF   GREECE. 
From  the  Earliest  Legends  to  the  Accession  of  Philip  of  Macedon. 

CHAPTER  XI. 

The  Mythical  Age  op  Greece. 

PAGB 

Contrast  of  Asiatic  despotism  and  Grecian  liberty — Survey  of  the  western  world — 
Greece  and  Rome — Their  part  in  the  world's  history — Earliest  population  of 
Greece  and  Italy — The  Pelasgian  race— Description  of  Greece — The  Hellenic 
race  and  its  four  divisictos — Earhest  traditions— Stories  of  Egyptian  and  Phoe- 
nician settlements — The  alphabet — How  history  deals  with  the  mythical  legends 
— Their  character  and  construction — Legends  of  the  gods — Jove  and  the  Olym- 
pic deities — Apollo  and  the  oracle  at  Delphi — Legends  of  the  heroes — Hercules 
— Theseus — Minos — The  Argonauts — Story  of  Thebes — The  Trojan  war — The 
Homeric  poems 299 — 318 


CHAPTER  Xn. 

The  Hellenic  States  and  Colonies.    From  the  Earliest  Historic  Records 

TO  B.C.  500. 

Condition  of  Greece  in  the  heroic  age— Political  and  social  changes  after  the  Trojan 
war — Dorian  invasion  of  Peloponnesus — Achasans  and  lonians  displaced — 
Colonies  in  Asia  Minor,  Ionian,  Jiolian,  and  Dorian — Crete — Extension  of  the 
Dorian  and  Ionian  races — ^Historical  epoch  of  the  first  Olympiad,  B.C.  776 — The 
Greek  nation  as  a  whole — The  Amphictyonies  and  Amphictyonic  council — The 
great  festivals — Olympic  games — ^Absence  of  political  unity — The  separate  states 
of  Greece — Argos,  imder  Pheidon — Sparta  and  the  institutions  of  Lycurgus — 
Conquest  of  Laconia  and  Messenia — Lacedajmonian  supremacy  in  Peloponnesus 
— The  tyrants  in  Greece  and  the  Colonies — Early  history  of  Attica — Theseus — 
Codrus — Abolition  of  royalt}^^ — Government  by  archons — The  senate  of  Areopa- 
gus— Legislation  of  Draco — Cylon  and  the  Alcmaeonids — Legislation  of  Solon — 
Usurpation  of  Pisistratus — Expulsion  of  the  family — Reforms  of  Clcisthenes — 
Wars  with  Sparta,  Thebes,  and  Chalcis — The  Athenian  democracy  firmly  estab- 
lished— Other  states  of  Greece — Colonies — In  the  countries  north  of  Greece — 
In  Asia — In  Sicily  and  Italy — In  Gaul  and  Spain — In  Africa — Survey  of  Hellas 
at  the  epoch  of  the  Persian  wars — Progress  of  literature,  philosophy,  and 
art 319—379 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

The   Persian  Wars.     From  the  Ionian  Revolt  to  the  Battles  of  the 

EtJRYMEDON. — B.C.  500  tO  B.C.  466. 

Causes  of  the  Ionian  Revolt — Miltiades  and  Histiaeus — ^Affair  of  Naxos — Revolt  of 
Aristagoras — Aid  sought  from  Sparta  and  Athens — Sardis  burnt  by  the  lonians 
and  Athenians — Defeat  of  the  lonians  and  capture  of  Miletus — Hippias  at  the 
Persian  court — Failure  of  the  expedition  under  Mardonius — His  conquest  of 
Macedonia — Preparations  of  Darius — ^Athens  and  Sparta  alone  refuse  earth  and 
water — Expedition  under  Datis  and  Artaphemes — Conquest  of  the  islands — 
Preparations  at  Athens — Battle  of  Marathon — Fate  of  Miltiades — The  iEginetan 
war — Foundation  of  the  maritime  power  of  Athens — Themistocles  and  Aristides 
— Xerxes  prepares  a  third  invasion — Progress  of  the  expedition — Thermopylae 
— Leonidas  and  the  three  hundred  Spartans — Events  preceding  the  battle  of 
Salamis — Defeat  of  the  Persian  fleet — Retreat  of  Xerxes — Battle  of  Himera  in 


xvi  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Sicily  on  the  same  day — Mardonius  in  Boootia — Battles  of  Plataea  and  Mycale — 
Affairs  of  Thebes — Liberation  of  the  islands,  Thrace,  and  Macedonia — The  war 
transferred  to  Asia — Capture  of  Sestos — The  leadership  transferred  from  Sparta 
to  Athens — Treason  and  death  of  Pausanias — Ostracism  of  Themistocles — 
Cimon  and  Pericles — Campaigns  of  Cimon  on  the  Asiatic  coast — Double  victory 
of  the  Eurymedou — Unsuccessful  campaign  of  the  Athenians  in  Egypt  .     380—453 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

Rivalry  op  the  Greek  Republics.     From  the  Confederacy  of  Delos  to  the  ekd 
OF  the  Theban  Supremacy. — b.c.  477  to  b.c.  360. 

State  of  Greece  after  the  Persian  wars — Rise  of  the  maritime  empire  of  Athens — 
Revolts  of  Naxos  and  Thasos — ^Vffairs  of  the  continent — Decline  of  Spartan  as- 
cendancy— Revolt  of  the  Helots:  third  Messenian  war — Athenian  politics — 
Ostracism  of  Cimon — Advance  of  democracy — Wars  with  the  Dorian  States — 
The  five  years'  truce — New  wars — Battle  of  Coronea — Megara  and  Euboea — 
Lacedaemonian  invasion  of  Attica — Thirty  years'  truce — Ascendancy  of  Pericles 
— ^Brilliant  epoch  of  Athens — Splendour  of  art  and  literature — Causes  and  out- 
break of  the  Peloponnesian  war — Its  first  period,  to  the  fifty  years'  truce  of 
Nicias — Invasions  of  Attica — Plague  at  Athens — Xaval  successes — Revolts  of 
allies — Athenian  statesmen  and  demagogues — Nicias,  Demosthenes,  and  Cleon 
— Aristophanes — War  of  Amphipolis — Brasidas  and  Thucydides — Second  period 
of  the  war,  to  the  failure  of  the  Sicilian  expedition — Alcibiades — Third  period  of 
the  war — Fortification  of  Decelea — Decline  of  Athens — Naval  campaigns  on  the 
shores  of  Asia — Battles  of  Arginusas  and  ^gospotami — Capture  of  Athens — 
The  thirty  tyrants — Counter  revolution — Peace  with  Sparta — Death  of  Socrates 
— Spartan  supremacy — Expedition  of  the  younger  Cyrus  and  the  ten  thousand 
Greeks — Lacedfemonian  war  in  Asia — Agesilaiis — ^League  against  Sparta — Co- 
rinthian war — Battles  of  Coronea  and  Cnidus — Peace  of  Antalcidas — OljTithian 
war — War  between  Thebes  and  Sparta — Epaminondas  and  Pelopidas — Peace  of 
CaUias — Battle  of  Leuctra — Supremacy  of  Thebes — Invasion  of  Peloponnesus — 
League  against  Sparta — Battle  of  Mantmea  and  death  of  Epaminondas — General 
pacification — Agesilaiis  in  Egypt:  his  death — Decline  of  Thebes — State  of 
Greece  at  this  epoch — Orators  at  Athens — Affairs  of  Sicily — The  Dionysii,  Dion, 
and  Timoleon — Art,  literature,  and  philosophy 454 — 562 


MAPS  AND  PLANS. 
The  Known  World  at  the  Deluge,         .        ,        .        .        .        To  face  Page    19 
"  "       at  the  Exodus  of  the  Israelites,       .        .         "        «        66 

Egypt  and  Palestine, a        u      j^3 

The  Time  of  Cyrus, «i        k      244 

Marathon, «      338 

Thermopylae, "411 

Salamis,  ••••........"      425 

Plat^a, "438 

Entirons  of  Athens, »      468 


ANCIENT  HISTOKY, 

SACRED  AND  SECULAR. 


FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  FALL  OF  THE 
WESTERN  ROIVIAN  E]\n»niE. 

B.C.  4004— A.D.  476. 


N.  B. — In  the  period  previous  to  the  settlement  of  Chronology,  we  give  the  dates  of 
Archbishop  Ussher,  as  convenient,  not  adopting  them  as  true.  The  chief  systems  of 
Scriptural  Chronology  are  explained  in  a  note  appended  to  the  Introduction. 


VOL.  I.—  1 


INTKODUCTION. 


"  Tet  I  doubt  not  through  the  ages  one  increasing  purpose  runs, 
And  the  thoughts  of  men  are  wideu'd  with  the  process  of  the  suns." 

Tenntbon. 


THE  SUBJECT  PROPOSED — ITS  UNITY — PROVINCE  OF  HISTORY — DISTINGUISHED  FROM  PHILOSOPHY 
AND  SCIENCE,  IN  ITS  NATURE  AND  ITS  EVIDENCE — ILLUSTRATION  FROM  THE  ORIGIN  OP  THE 
WORLD,  AS  REGARDED  IN  THE  LIGHTS  OF  HISTORY  AND  SCIENCE  RESPECTIVELY — RELATIONS 
OF  PRIMEVAL  HISTORY  TO  ASTRONOMY,  GEOLOGY,  PHYSICAL  GEOGRAPHY,  CHRONOLOGY,  AND 
THEOLOGY — METHODS  OF  HISTORICAL  INQUIRY — EPOCHS  AND  PERIODS  OF  HISTORY — MO- 
MENTS OF  ORIGINATION  AND  OF  DEVELOPMENT — EPOCHS  OF  REVOLUTION  AND  PERIODS  OP 
EEPOSE — EXAMPLE  OF  A  SUCCESSFUL  METHOD  IN  GIBBON's  GREAT  WORK— NOTE  OX  SCRIP- 
TURE  CHRONOLOGY. 

"We  prppose  to  relate  the  History  of  the  World,  irom  its 
earliest  records  to  our  own  times.  So  arduous  an  enterprise  needs 
the  friendly  consideration  of  the  reader,  and  still  more  the  aid 
of  Him  whose  providence  Js  the  living  spirit  of  our  theme.  The 
work  is  undertaken  under  the  conviction  that  the  whole  world 
has  c  history,  as  much  as  each  separate  nation.  Amidst  all  the 
severmg  forces  of  climate,  colour,  language,  interest,  and  animos- 
ity, our  race  fonns  a  complete  whole.  One  in  its  origin,  one 
even  in  its  true  interests,  it  is  destined  to  be  one  in  its  final  con- 
summation.    And  it  is  this  that  gives  a  unity  to  its  history. 

In  so  wide  a  subject,  the  province  of  the  historian  should  be 
carefully  distinguished  from  those  of  the  man  of  science  and  the 
philosopher ;  for  all  knowledge  of  facts  does  not  belong  to  his- 
tory. Philosophy  aspires  to  know  the  absolute  truth  of  all  things, 
both  visible  and  invisible,  that  can  be  known  by  man.  Science 
confines  itself  to  those  objective  facts  which  are  the  results  of  the 
fixed  natural  laws  which  it  seeks  to  discover.  But  history,  while 
also  dealing  only  with  objective  facts,  views  them  in  ever-chang- 
ing action  and  in  a  connected  series ;  not  as  a  completed  whole, 
the  product  of  fixed  laws.  Tlie  subject-matter  of  science  was 
determined  when  the  Creator  made  the  world ;  but  history  is 
ever  in  the  making.  In  the  former,  if  we  know  a  law,  we  can 
with  certainty  trace  its  operation  in  a  particular  case ;  but  this  is 


4  INTRODUCTION. 

no  longer  possible  when  the  Inimaii  ^vill  and  passions  come  into 
play.  For  tlieii  the  most  varied  residts  are  produced,  according 
to  the  cliaracters  and  cijcunistanccs  of  tlie  agents  ;  and  it  is  these 
surprising  changes  that  give  life  to  history. 

It  is  not  denied  that  all  the  fiicts  ^vhich  have  occun-cd  in  the 
world  are  bound  together  by  tliose  hidden  laws,  physical,  moral, 
and  spiritual,  which  constitute  the  whole  moral  government  of 
God.  Xor  is  the  historian  unconcerned  with  the  working  of 
those  laws.  The  actions  he  has  to  relate  are  so  connected  with 
the  motives  of  the  actors,  the  external  facts  with  their  causes  in 
human  nature,  that  his  subject  must  often  be  regarded  in  the 
light  of  science  and  philosophy.  ]3ut  these  occasional  excursions 
into  another  province  should  only  furnish  him  with  materials  to 
illustrate  his  own. 

If,  indeed,  it  were  possible,  as  some  think,  to  determine  a 
law  to  which  even  man's  free  agency  is  subject,  such  as  that  of 
fataKsm,  or  if  we  could  be  content  with  the  statistics  of  observed 
facts,  as  a  substitute  for  any  higher  law,  then  the  whole  course 
of  human  actions  throughout  all  ages  would  no  longer  constitute 
a  history,  but  a  science.  What  are  now  the  facts  of  history, 
wrought  out  by  voluntary  agents,  would  then  become  a  system 
of  fixed  phenomena,  the  necessary  effects  of  a  fixed  law.  We 
are  not  now  called  upon  to  discuss  the  truth  of  any  such  doc- 
trines. Believing  firmly  in  the  Divine  ordering  of  the  course  of 
human  affairs,  we  believe  as  firmly  that  it  is  not  given  to  man,  in 
his  present  state,  to  trace  the  secret  harmony  of  the  Divine  gov- 
ernment with  the  liberty  of  man  ;  and  we  are  content  to  record 
the  facts  as  they  have  occurred. 

History  is  further  distinguished  from  science  by  the  evidence 
on  which  its  conclusions  rest.  That  evidence  is  the  testimony  of 
credible  witnesses  concerning  past  events ;  while  science  deter- 
mines its  truths  by  observation  and  experiment  upon  phenomena 
as  they  present  themselves  to  its  view.  Science  docs  indeed 
make  a  secondary  use  of  testimony  to  discover  the  facts  from 
which  it  reasons,  while  existing  things  often  confirm  historic 
testimony.  Thus  the  line  of  demarcation  is  shaded  oft*  at  its 
extreme  edges,  but  it  is  not  the  less  real. 

The  importance  of  these  distinctions  appears  at  the  very 
threshold  ot  our  work.  The  whole  fabric  of  human  society  is,  to 
our  minds,  inseparably  connected  with  the  earth  on  which  man 
dwells,  and  which  has  evidently  been  fitted  specially  for  his  use. 
The  origin  of  this  world,  and  of  man  himself,  invites  the  enquiry 


THE  PROPER  PROVINCE   OF  HISTORY.  5 

of  all  tlionglitful  persons ;  and  as  the  opinions  lield  npon  these 
points  involve  belief  or  disbelief  in  God  and  His  creative  works, 
they  affect  the  very  foundations  of  religion  and  so  of  all  social 
life.  These  questions  can  only  be  decided,  in  part  by  the  light 
of  science,  in  part  by  the  authority  of  revelation.  The  latter,  as 
the  highest  of  all  testimony,  is  the  historian's  only  safe  guide  over 
the  ground  which  lies  beyond  the  unaided  knowledge  of  man  ; 
but  he  will  thankfully  accept  every  illustration  contributed  by 
the  former.  It  is  not  for  him  to  reconcile  the  difficulties  between 
science  and  revealed  religion.  He  accepts  the  testimony  of  the 
sacred  writers  as  he  does  that  of  any  other  credible  witnesses, 
though  with  a  more  reverential  faith.  He  uses  the  light  of  all 
the  truth  which  science  has  certainly  established  for  the  inter- 
pretation of  that  testimony.  All  that  is  still  to  be  settled  he 
leaves  to  the  ]3hilosopher  and  the  theologian. 

In  attempting,  therefore,  to  pursue  our  enquiries  down  from 
the  very  origin  of  our  world,  we  must  start  from  the  testimony 
of  revelation,  that  it  was  created  by  God,  in  a  certain  order, 
specially  for  the  abode  of  man.  Such  was  its  "  beginning,"  and 
the  true  beginning  of  human  history,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  the 
mythical  accounts  given  by  poetry  or  false  religion,  and  of  all 
philosophic  theories  that  are  inconsistent  with  this  plain  state- 
ment. But,  as  to  how  many  ages  we  should,  date  back  to  that 
"  beginning," — how  the  revealed  order  of  the  creation,  which  is 
only  stated  in  the  most  general  terms,  is  to  be  reconciled  with 
the  indications  furnished  by  geology, — what  precise  ])eriods  of 
time  are  meant  by  the  "days"  of  the  Scripture  record, — with 
these  and  similar  disputed  questions,  on  which  certainty  seems  at 
present  unattainable,  the  historian  is  only  concerned  in  so  far  as 
their  enth-e  neglect  might  lead  him  into  positive  error. 

History  gains  much  and  loses  nothing  by  being  thus  confined 
within  its  own  limits.  The  hi'storian  accepts  contributions  from 
the  various  sciences,  without  assuming  to  review  their  founda- 
tions. The  earth  is  presented  to  him  as  a  member  of  the  great 
"  Cosmos,"  to  which  its  relations  are  such  as  to  sustain  the  being 
and  to  promote  the  order  and  happiness  of  the  human  race  ;  but 
whether  it  was  at  first  projected  from  the  sun  round  which  it 
moves, — how  it  was  made  to  receive  the  life-giving  light  and 
warmth  which  form  the  spring  of  action  and  energy  uj^on  its  sur- 
face,— and  how  those  movements  are  regulated  which  preserve 
to  man  the  sure  changes  of  the  seasons,  and  the  signs  which  mark 
out  his  time, — all  this  he  leaves  to  the  Astronomer.     So,  too,  he 


6  INTllODUCTION. 

listens  \vith  deep  interest  to  the  Geologist,  explaining  liow  the 
fused  matter  of  our  globe  cooled  down  till  it  formed  a  solid  crust, 
surrounded  by  a  dense  niixture  of  air  and  watery  vapour  ;  how  a 
further  cooling  caused  the  Avater  partly  to  settle  on  the  surface 
and  partly  to  float  upon  the  air ;  how  the  disturbed  forces  of  the 
central  fire  broke  nj^  the  crust  into  hill  and  dale,  and  formed 
basins  for  the  seas ;  how  the  rocks  were  deposited  in  successive 
layers  from  the  waters,  and  were  again  and  again  heaved  up  into 
Al])s,  Andes,  and  Himalayas ;  how  the  surface  thus  prepared 
was  clothed  witli  the  vast  primeval  forests,  whicli  purified  the  air 
while  they  grew,  and  then,  once  more  submerged,  became  re- 
serves of  fuel  for  all  future  ages ;  and  how  the  races  of  animals 
apj)eared  in  those  successive  series,  which  are  attested  by  their 
remains  still  embedded  in  the  rocks,  till  we  reach  Man,  the  last 
and  crowning  work  of  God.  In  all  these  revelations  of  science 
the  historian  sees  many  of  the  influences  wdiich  help  to  explain 
the  course  of  man's  social  and  political  life ;  but  his  business 
begins  where  that  of  the  geologist  ends. 

The  same  is  true  of  Physical  Geography,  a  science  which  is 
the  ofiTspring  of  geology,  and  which  comes  into  the  closest  contact 
with  history.  It  is  impossible  for  the  historian  to  relate  the 
movements  of  men  upon  the  earth,  without  some  description  of 
the  countries  which  have  been  their  scene ;  but  he  leaves  it  to 
science  to  account  for  the  conformation  of  these  countries. 

Tliere  is  one  science,  however,  which  can  scarcely  be  separated 
from  history — the  science  of  Chronology.  The  dates  of  events 
are  but  a  means  of  giving  a  more  accurate  expression  to  their 
moving  series,  which  it  is  the  province  of  history  to  describe.  To 
this  the  fixed  epochs  and  methods  of  technical  chronology  are 
merely  subsidiary  ;  and  the  primary  modes  of  reckoning  time 
may  be  considered  as  a  branch  of  astronomy.* 

This  discussion  must  not  be  closed  without  a  few  words  on 
the  relation  of  history  to  Theology,  the  science  of  sciences,  the 
highest  branch  of  human  learning.  Tlie  world  is  God's  Avorld ; 
and  its  true  history  must  begin  and  end  with  God.  The  division 
of  history  into  sacred  and  secular,  civil  and  ecclesiastical,  how- 
ever convenient,  is  arbitrary  and  unreal.  Could  we  see  each 
event  in  its  true  light,  we  should  sec  all  bearing  some  relation  to 
the  Divine  purposes  and  plans.  But  as  those  purposes  are  only 
revealed  in  their  broad  outline  and  great  end,  as  the  details  of 

*  See  the  Note  at  the  end  of  the  Introduction. 


PEmcrPLES  OF  HISTOEICAL  ENQUIRY.  7 

that  plan  are  unfolded  but  slowly  and  obscurely,  any  attempt  to 
regard  all  events  from  a  theological  point  of  view  nmst  defeat 
itself.  So  long  as  the  historian  writes  in  a  S23irit  sincerely  but 
not  obtrusively  devout,  he  may  safely  leave  the  religious  lessons 
of  the  story  to  the  devout  reader.  N'or  will  a  wise  historian 
abstain  from  any  com-se  more  carefully  than  from  gratifying  his 
own  zeal  for  the  truth  by  offending  the  opinions  of  candid  and 
temperate  readers. 

But  the  external  facts  that  have  sprung  from  the  profession  of 
religions,  whether  the  true  or  the  false,  belong  essentially  to  the 
province  of  the  historian.  No  source  has  been  so  fruitful  of 
events  that  have  changed  the  fate  of  countries  and  the  destiny  of 
nations.  In  what  spirit,  then,  should  these  incidents  be  related  ? 
Tlie  profession  of  calm  indifference  has  proved  but  a  veil  for  sar- 
castic incredulity.  No  man  with  a  sound  head  and  a  warm  heart 
can  relate  the  call  of  Abraham,  the  legislation  of  Moses,  the  con- 
quest of  Canaan,  the  story  of  Pharaoh,  or  Nebuchadnezzar,  or 
Cyrus,  and  the  exploits  of  the  Maccabees,  and  yet  reserve  the 
question  whether  the  Jews  were  in  truth  God's  chosen  people.  A 
Christian  historian  cannot  but  write  of  Christ  as  the  Divine  Ee- 
deemer,  and  of  Mahomet  as  the  false  prophet.  Nor  can  a  Protes- 
tant conceal  his  opinion  of  the  apostasy  of  the  Poman  Church  arid 
the  blessings  of  the  Peformation.  But  the  historical  and  the  con- 
troversial treatment  of  such  matters  must  be  kept  altogether  dis- 
tinct. The  controversialist  has  to  make  out  his  case  by  all  fair 
means  ;  but  the  Mstorian  is  bound  to  render  im23artial  justice  to 
the  motives  and  characters  of  the  actors  on  both  sides.  Never 
must  he  depart  from  this  course  on  any  ground  of  supposed  pol- 
icy, or  even  of  zeal  for  what  he  deems  religious  truth.  What 
concerns  him  is  the  truth  of  the  facts,  not  their  consequences  to 
any  system  of  opinions.  Candour  and  toleration  are  the  vital 
breath  of  historic  truth,  and  are  never  violated  with  impunity. 

Such  are  the  chief  principles  of  historical  enquiry.  The  meth' 
ods  of  pursuing  it  are  various.  The  great  philosopher,  Schleier- 
macher,  has  drawn  a  distinction  between  the  longitudinal  and 
transverse  views  of  any  series  of  historic  facts.  He  means  that  we 
may  either  follow  any  one  of  the  great  trains  of  events  which  his- 
tory presents,  from  its  beginning  to  its  end ;  or  we  may  choose 
Bome  epoch  *  at  which  to  take  a  view  of  the  then  existing  state 

*  We  use  this  word  in  its  proper  sense  of  a  point  of  stoppage.  A  period  is  the 
space  between  two  epochs.    The  terms  are  often  confounded. 


8  INTRODUCTION. 

of  each  separate  nation.  But  it  should  be  remembered,  that  the 
chain  of  liistory  is  not,  so  to  speak,  a  bundle  of  parallel  wires,  each 
of  which  can  be  traced  from  its  beginning  to  its  end.  Its  strands 
are  constantly  intertwined  in  the  most  unexpected  manner.  To 
pursue  UTiy  one  alone,  it  must  be  artfully  disentangled  from  the 
rest ;  and  where  this  is  impossible,  others  must  also  be  described, 
to  account  for  their  interlacing  with  this  one.  Thus,  for  example, 
the  history  of  Greece  connects  itself,  at  certain  points,  with  those 
of  Persia  and  of  Rome  ;  and  these  with  a  whole  network  of  fibres 
that  lead  over  Asia,  Africa,  and  Europe.  The  only  strictly  "  lon- 
gitudinal "  treatment  of  history  is  that  which  embraces  the  whole 
annals  of  the  human  race  ;  and  sucli  a  treatment  becomes  possible, 
when  aided  by  the  "  transverse  "  method  at  well-chosen  epochs. 

Sucli  epochs  arc  not  difficult  to  discover.  The  whole  course 
of  history  is  made  up,  as  the  same  philosopher  has  observed,  of 
distinct  moments,  or  moves,  like  those  of  a  game'of  chess,  or  of  a 
military  campaign.  It  is  the  observation  of  these  moments,  as 
distinguished  from  mere  facts,  that  makes  the  diff'erence  between 
a  history  and  a  chronicle.  They  are  of  two  kinds — moments  of 
origination,  and  moments  of  progress  or  development.  It  is  true 
that  the  philosopher,  according  as  he  believes  rather  in  tlie  direct 
government  of  God,  or  in  the  operation  of  fixed  laws,  might  raise 
all  events  to  moments  of  origination,  or  reduce  them  to  moments 
of  development.  But  the  historian,  taking  a  common-sense  view 
of  objective  facts,  recognizes  the  broad  distinction  between  gradual 
development  and  sudden  origination.  His  attention  is  arrested 
by  those  revolutionary  changes  whicli  involve  the  destruction  of 
what  has  been  long  developing,  in  order  to  a  reconstruction  by  the 
force  of  some  new  element.  He  sees  that  all  history  is  divided 
into  epochs  of  revolution  and  periods  of  comparative  repose.  Tlius 
he  obtains  a  natural  division  of  his  subject  into  parts,  all  of  which 
may  be  harmonized  by  the  principle,  that  one  supreme  government 
regulates  the  whole.  And,  under  each  of  these  periods,  he  groups 
the  external  and  internal  facts  of  history,  the  striking  events  of 
politics  and  war,  and  the  quieter  but  more  important  movements 
of  civilization,  morals,  and  religion.  The  chief  source  of  diflicul- 
ty  seems  to  be  in  the  want  of  coincidence  between  the  epochs  of 
the  several  parallel  series  which  run  through  history.  But  the 
wider  our  field,  and  the  broader  our  survey  of  it,  the  less  will  this 
difficulty  be  felt.  The  great  landmarks  in  the  history  of  the 
world  can  hardly  be  mistaken. 

That  a  great  and  perplexed  period  of  history,  and  therefore  the 


lilETHOD   OF   HISTORICAL  ENQUIRY.  9 

whole,  may  be  treated  with  a  clue  regard  to  its  entire  harmony, 
has  been  practically  proved  by  the  immortal  work  of  Gibbon. 
What  great  historical  mass  was  ever  made  np  of  more  distinct 
elements — each  with  its  own  epochs  more  strongly  marked,  and 
with  fewer  epochs  common  to  the  whole  series — than  the  story 
of  the  breaking  up  of  the  Western  Empire  into  the  medieval 
states  ?  Who  has  not  looked  forward — with  a  despair  as  to  the 
method  almost  equalled  by  his  interest  in  the  subject — upon 
the  long  story  of  the  splendours  of  the  Antonines  and  the  vices 
and  follies  of  their  successors, — the  bewildering  revolutions,  the 
wars  upon  the  frontier,  the  torrent  of  barbarian  invasion, — and 
the  still  greater  changes  which  gave  the  world  a  new  religion  ? 
Who  can  have  hoped  to  grasp  the  progress  of  all  these  varied  in- 
cidents in  the  East  and  in  the  West,  and  to  retain  a  view  of  the 
scenes  on  which  they  were  enacted,  from  the  Tigris  to  the  Heb- 
rides, and  from  the  Wall  of  China  to  the  Libyan  Desert  ?  And 
who  that  has  opened  the  first  volume  with  such  misgivings,  has 
not  closed  the  last  of  the  first  part  with  a  satisfaction  akin  to  that 
derived  from  some  great  mosaic  picture,  whose  perfect  unity 
makes  him  almost  forget  how  many  myriads  of  fragments  have 
gone  to  make  it  up  ?  Imperial  Eome  has  almost  insensibly  van- 
ished from  the  scene,  and  Italy  has  become  a  Gothic  kingdom, 
surrounded  by  the  monarchies  of  Europe  in  the  first  stage  of  their 
formation.  The  Queen  of  the  East  has  arisen,  as  if  by  enchant- 
ment, from  the  waters  of  the  Bosporus,  and  her  splendour  has 
again  been  overcast.  Christianity  has  triumphed,  but  the  tri- 
umph has  been  abused  by  her  ministers.  The  West  is  ripe  for 
Feudalism  ;  and  the  East  seems  to  await  the  doom  of  her  idola- 
tries from  the  sword  of  Mahomet.  The  work  of  art  is  perfect ; 
the  life  of  a  generous  enthusiasm  is  alone  wanting : — "  Yir  claiis- 
simus,  sed  quoad  res  divinas  utinam  felicior  !  " 


10  NOTE   ON   SCRIPTURE   CHRONOLOGY. 


NOTE   ON   SCRIPTURE   CHRONOLOGY. 

Independently  of  scientific  evidence,  and  of  the  traditions  and  monu- 
ments of  Egypt,  Chaktea,  and  otlier  nations,  the  following  are  our  data 
for  determining  the  clironological  relations  of  primeval  history  to  the 
Christian  era. 

1.  From  the  Creation  to  the  Deluge,  the  generations  of  the  patriarchs 
form  our  only  guide.  These,  however,  are  given  dilTerently  in  different 
copies  of  the  Scriptures;  the  sum  being,  in  the  LXX.  606  years  longer, 
and  in  the  Samaritan  Pentateuch  349  years  shorter,  than  in  the  received 
Hebrew  text.     The  ancient  chronologers  give  further  variations. 

2.  Fro7n  the  Deluge  to  the  death  of  Josejyh,  and  thence  to  the  Exodus, 
the  patriarchal  years  are  again  our  chief  guide ;  but  other  data  are  ob« 
tained  from  various  statements  respecting  the  interval  from  the  call  of 
Abraham  to  tlie  giving  of  tlie  Law  and  the  sojourning  of  the  Israelites 
in  Egypt.*  The  main  point  in  dispute  here  is,  whether  430  years  was 
the  whole  period  from  the  call  of  Abraham  to  the  Exodus,  or  only  the 
time  of  the  sojourning  of  the  Israelites  in  Egypt, 

3.  From  the  Exodus  to  the  building  of  Solomon^ s  Temple,  the  interval  is 
positively  stated  in  the  received  Hebrew  text,  as  480  years.f  But  the 
reading  is  disputed ;  it  is  alleged  to  be  inconsistent  witli  the  450  years 
assigned  by  St.  Paul  to  the  Judges  ;  |  and  the  longer  period  is  made  out 
by  adding  together  the  numbers  given  in  the  Book  of  Judges.  Some 
chron,ologers,  on  the  other  hand,  compute  from  the  many  genealogies 
which  we  have  for  this  period. 

4.  From  the  Building  of  the  Temple  to  its  Destruction  and  the  Captivity 
of  ZedeJciah,  we  have  the  annals  of  the  kings  of  Israel  and  Judah.  Here 
the  difficulties  are  so  slight,  that  the  principal  chronologers  only  differ 
by  15  years  in  nearly  500. 

5.  The  Epocu  of  the  Destruction  of  the  Temple  is  fixed  by  a 
concurrence  of  proofs,  from  sacred  and  profane  history,  with  only  a 
variation  of  one,  or  at  the  most  two  years,  between  B.C.  588  and  586. 
Clinton's  date  is  June,  B.C.  587.  From  this  epoch  we  obtain  for  the 
building  of  Solomon's  Temple  the  date  of  about  b,c.  1012.§ 

From  this  point  the  reckoning  backwards  is  of  course  affected  by  the 
differences  already  noticed.  Out  of  these  have  arisen  three  leading  sys- 
tems of  clironology. 

I.  The  Rahhinical,  a  system  handed  down  traditionally  by  the  Jewish 
doctors,  places  the  Creation  244  years  later  than  our  received  clironology, 
in  B.C.  3750,  and  the  Exodus  in  B.C.  1314.  Tliis  leaves  from  the  Exodus 
to  tlie  building  of  the  Temple  an  interval  of  only  300  years,  a  term 
calculated  chiefly  from  the  genealogies,  and  only  reconciled  with  the  num- 
bers given  in  the  Book  of  Judges  by  the  most  arbitrary  alterations. 
Genealogies,  however,  are  no  safe  basis  for  chronology,  especially  when, 
as  can  be  proved  in  many  cases,  links  are  omitted  in  their  statement. 
"  When  we  come  to  examine  them  closely,  we  find  that  many  are  broken 
without  being  in  consequence  technically  defective  as  Hebrew  genealogies. 

*  Genesis  xv.  13;  Exodus  xii.  41  ;  Acts  vii.  G;  Galatians  iii.  17. 

+  1  Kings  vi.  1.  %  Acts  xiii.  20. 

§  The  bigbest  computation,  that  of  Hales,  makes  tbe  date  b.c.  1027. 


NOTE   ON   SCRIPTURE   CHRONOLOGY.  11 

A  modern  pedigree  thus  broken  wonld  be  defective,  but  the  principle  of 
these  genealogies  must  have  been  different.  A  notable  instance  is  that 
of  the  genealogy  of  our  Saviour  given  by  St.  Matthew.  In  this  gene- 
alogy Joram  is  immediately  followed  by  Ozias,  as  if  his  son — Ahaziah, 
Joash,  and  Amaziah  being  omitted.*  In  Ezra's  genealogy  f  there  is  a 
similar  omission,  which  in  so  famous  a  line  can  scarcely  be  attributed  to 
the  carelessness  of  the  copyist.  There  arc  also  examples  of  a  man  being 
called  the  son  of  a  remote  ancestor  in  a  statement  of  a  genealogical  form.  J 
We  cannot  therefore  venture  to  use  the  Hebrew  genealogical  lists  to 
compute  intervals  of  time,  except  where  we  can  prove  each  descent  to  be 
immediate.  But  even  if  we  can  do  this,  we  have  still  to  be  sure  that  we 
can  determine  the  average  length  of  each  generation."  §  The  violent 
efforts  of  the  Rabbis  to  bring  their  shorter  period  into  harmony  with  the 
Book  of  Judges  have  indeed  been  ingeniously  converted  from  an  objection 
into  an  argument  by  the  recent  German  school,  who  follow  their  scheme, 
because  it  seems  to  them  the  most  consistent  with  Egyptian  chronology. 
These  efforts  to  overcome  difficulties  of  detail  prove,  it  is  said,  that  they 
had  good  reasons  for  clinging  to  the  total.  But  surely  their  traditional 
total  cannot  be  allowed  to  stand  in  opposition  both  to  the  480  years  of 
the  Book  of  Kings  and  the  450  years  named  by  St.  Paul.  Whatever  may 
be  the  difficulty  of  reconciling  these  two  numbers,  they  clearly  point  to  a 
l^eriod  much  longer  than  that  allowed  by  the  Rabbis.  The  confirmation 
of  the  Rabbinical  system  by  the  Egyptian  chronology  involves  somewhat 
of  an  argument  in  a  circle.  It  rests  mainly  on  the  identification  of  the 
Pharaoh  of  the  Exodus  with  Menephtha,  the  son  of  Rameses  the  Great,  of 
the  Nineteenth  Dynasfy,  whose  reign  is  computed  from  B.C.  1328  to  B.C. 
1309.  But  the  only  independent  authority  for  this  identification  is  an 
account  of  the  Exodus,  repeated  from  Manetho  by  Josephus,  who  justly 
regards  it  as  of  httle  authority.  1" 

2.  The  Short  or  Received  Chronology  is  that  which  has  been  generally 
followed  in  the  West  since  the  time  of  Jerome,  and  has  been  adopted,  in 
the  margin  of  the  authorized  English  version,  according  to  the  system  of 
its  ablest  advocate.  Archbishop  Ussher.  Its  leading  data  are,  first,  the 
adoption  of  the  numbers  of  the  Hebrew  text  for  the  patriarchal  geneal- 
ogies ;  secondly,  the  reckoning  of  the  430  years  from  the  call  of  Abra- 
ham to  the  Exodus ;  and,  lastly,  the  adhering  to  the  480  years  for  the 
period  from  the  Exodus  to  the  building  of  the  Temple.  As  we  are 
only  giving  a  general  account  of  these  different  systems,  and  not  attempt- 
ing their  full  discussion,  we  cannot  now  explain  how  the  last  datum  is 
reconciled  with  the  450  years  assigned  by  St.  Paul  to  the  Judges,  or  with 
the  numbers  obtained  from  their  annals.     It  is  enough  to  say  that  the 

*  Matthew  i.  8.  "  That  this  is  not  an  accidental  omission  of  a  copyist  is  evident 
from  the  specification  of  the  number  of  generations  from  Abraham  to  David,  from 
David  to  the  Babylonish  Captivity,  and  thence  to  Christ,  in  each  case  fourteen  gene- 
rations. Probably  these  missing  names  were  purposely  left  out  to  make  the  number 
for  the  interval  equal  to  that  of  the  other  intervals,  such  an  omission  being  obvious, 
and  not  liable  to  cause  error." 

f  Ezra  vii.  1 — 5. 

i  Genesis  xxix.  5,  compared  with  xxviii.  2,  5 ;  1  Chronicles  xxvi,  24 ;  1  Kinga 
xix.  1 6,  compared  with  2  Kings  ix.  2,  14. 

§  Poole,  art.  Chronology,  in  Smith's  Dictionary  of  the  Bible. 

^  We  shall  have  occasion  to  return  to  this  point  under  the  history  of  the  Jews  in 
Egypt,  Book  II.  chap.  viii. 


13 


NOTE   ON   SCRIPTURE   CHRONOLOGY. 


difficulties  are  not  insuperable,  and  that  the  system  of  Ussher  may  fairly 
hold  the  place  assigned  to  it,  till  some  other  be  established  on  stronger 
evidence  than  has  yet  been  made  out.  The  great  chronologer  Petaviua 
is  in  substantial  agreement  with  Ussher ;  but,  for  reasons  Avhich  cannot 
now  be  stated,  he  places  the  Exodus  and  the  call  of  Abraham  each 
40  3^ear3  earlier,  the  Deluge  and  the  Creation  each  20  years  later,  than 
Ussher. 

3.  The  Long  Chronology  has  been,  in  recent  times,  the  most  formidable 
competitor  of  the  short  system.  Its  leading  advocates  are  Hales,  Jackson, 
and  Des  VignoUes.  With  some  minor  differences,  they  agree  in  adopting 
the  Septuagint  numbers  for  the  ages  of  the  patriarchs,  and  the  long  in- 
terval from  the  Exodus  to  the  building  of  the  Temple.  Their  arguments 
for  the  former  view  are  very  ably  answered  by  Clinton,  who  adopts 
the  short  period  from  the  Creation  to  the  call  of  Abraham,  and  the  430 
years  on  to  the  Exodus,  but  reckons  612  years  from  thence  to  the  foun- 
dation of  the  Temple.  Since  he  wrote,  however,  the  state  of  the  question 
has  been  materially  affected  by  the  study  of  Egyptian  and  Chaldsean 
history.  In  both  cases,  and  on  independent  grounds,  an  antiquity  is  now 
claimed  for  the  commencement  of  the  annals  of  these  nations  inconsistent 
with  the  received  date  of  the  Deluge  in  B.C.  2348.  The  era  of  Menes, 
the  first  king  of  Egypt,  is  placed  about  B.C.  2717,  and  that  of  the  third 
Chaldtean  dynasty  of  Berosus  (the  first  which  has  any  claim  to  be  his- 
torical) about  B.C.  2234.  The  weight  of  this  argument  of  course  depends 
on  the  value  we  may  assign  to  the  numbers  of  Manetho  and  Berosus,  and 
to  the  astronomical  calculations  which  are  supposed  to  confirm  them ; 
questions  to  be  considered  as  we  proceed.  It  is  on  such  gromids,  as  well 
as  from  the  numbers  in  the  Book  of  Judges,  that  Mr.  Poole  adheres  to 
the  long  system  of  chronology. 

THE   FOLLOWING  TABLE   EXHIBITS  THE  PRINCIPAL  DATES  AS 
GIVEN  BY   THE   LEADING  MODERN   CURONOLOGERS. 


Short  System. 

Long  System. 

TJssher. 

Petavius. 

Clinton. 

ILiles. 

Jackson. 

Poole. 

B.C. 

B.C. 

B.C. 

B.C. 

B.C. 

B.C. 

•Creation     . 

4004 

3983 

4138 

5411 

5426 

5421* 

.Flood 

2349 

2327 

2482 

3155 

3170 

3159* 

Call  of  Abraham 

1921 

1961 

20.55 

2078 

2023 

2082 

Exodus 

U91 

1531 

1G2.1 

1648 

1593 

1652 

Foundation  of  Temple . 

1012 

1012 

1013 

1027 

1014 

1010 

Destruction  of  Temple. 

5S8 

589 

587 

586 

586 

586 

*0r 

each  of  thes 

e  two  dates 

may  be  60  3 

rears  lower. 

BOOK   I. 

THE  PATRIARCHAL  AGE,  AND  THE  ORIGIN 
OP  THE  NATIONS. 


FROM  THE  CREATION  TO  THE  EXODUS. 


B.C.  4004—1491. 


CONTENTS   OF  BOOK  I. 


CHAP. 
L— THE  CREATION  OF  THE  WORLD,  AND  THE  FIRST  STATE  OF  MAN. 

II.— FROM  THE  FALL  TO  THE  DELUGE ;   OR,  THE  CATASTROPHE  OF  SIN. 

III.— THE  POST-DILUVIAN  WORLD,  FROM  THE  DELUGE  TO  THE  DISPER 
SION;   OR,  MAN'S  SECOND  PROBATION  AND  FALL. 

IV.— THE  DIVISION  OF  THE  NATIONS. 

v.— EARLY   HISTORY    OF    THE    HEBREW  RACE:— FROM   THE    CALL  OP 
ABRAHAM   TO   THE   EXODUS. 


CHAPTER  I. 


THE    CREATIOIT    OF  THE    IVORLD,  AND    THE    FIRST  STATE 

OF  MAN. 


Glory  to  Him,  whose  wisdom  hath  ordained 

Good  out  of  evil  to  create— instead 

Of  spirits  malign,  a  better  race  to  bring 

Into  their  vacant  room,  and  thence  difi'use 

His  good  to  worlds  and  ages  infinite ! " — Milton. 


THE  EARLIEST  HISTORICAL  RECORDS  ARE  IN  THE  BOOKS  OF  MOSES — THEIR  ORIGINAL  PUHP08B 
AND  HISTORICAL  VALUE — MOSAIC  ACCOUNT  OP  THE  CREATION — ITS  MODE  OP  REVELATION — 
ITS  SUCCESSIVE  STAGES — PRIMEVAL  STATE  OF  MAN— INSTITUTION  OF  MARRIAGE — ORIGIN  OP 
LANGUAGE — ADAm's  STUDY  OP  GOd's  WORKS — THE  GARDEN  OP  EDEN — ITS  PROBABLE  LOCAL- 
jXT — CONDITION  AND  OCCUPATIONS  OP  THE  FIRST  MAN — HIS  CREATION  IN  THE  IMAGE  OP 
GOD. 

The  first  nation  of  which  we  have  a  distinct  history  is  the  race 
of  Israel ;  and  the  earliest  existing  records  are  their  sacred  writ- 
ings. To  estimate  the  historic  value  of  the  Books  of  Moses,  and 
the  illustrations  which  they  need  fi'om  other  sources,  we  must 
bear  in  mind  their  immediate  object.  The  people  of  Israel  had 
been  called  out  of  Egypt,  corrupted  by  her  false  religion  as  well 
as  degraded  by  her  tyranny,  to  receive  the  Divine  law,  which  was 
to  distinguish  them  from  all  other  nations.  That  law,  entrusted  to 
their  keeping,  and  illustrated  by  their  history,  was  destined,  in  its 
perfect  spiritual  development,  to  regenerate  the  whole  woi-W. 

Its  foundation  was  laid  in  their  relation  to  the  true  God,  as  His 
children  and  chosen  people  ;  and  that  God  must  needs  therefore 
be  made  known  to  them,  as  the  Creator  of  the  world,  and  as  the 
friend  and  guide  of  their  forefathers.  "With  this  view  Moses  wrote 
for  them,  in  the  Book  of  Genesis,  not  a  complete  history  of  the 
primeval  ages,  but  so  much  of  that  history  as  bore  upon  their 
religious  and  national  life.  And  this  record  remains  our  sole 
direct  authority  for  the  earliest  history  of  the  world.  It  can  be 
illustrated  by  the  traditions  of  various  nations,  and  by  the  re- 
searches of  science,  especially  Ethnography  and  Comparative 
Philology ;  but  the  full  exposition  of  such  matters  belongs  rather 
to  the  antiquarian.  It  is  only  their  established  results  that  fall 
within  the  province  of  the  historian.  Kor  is  this  the  place  to 
discuss  the  genuineness  and  historic  credibility  of  the  writings 
ascribed  to  Moses.    This  we  assume  as  proved. 


16  THE   CREATION   OF   THE  WORLD.  [Chap.  I. 

In  relating  the  creation  of  tlie  world,  as  the  scene  of  the  events 
of  human  history,  Moses  had  the  one  object  of  ascribing  it  to 
God,  in  opposition  to  all  the  figments  of  false  religion  and  phi- 
losoijhy.  It  was  quite  unnecessary  for  him  to  give  a  scientific 
view  of  its  origin.  His  account  is  purely  historical  in  its  form. 
It  is  such  an  account  as  might  have  been  given  by  a  spectator  ; 
and  the  writer  seems  to  have  been  placed,  by  a  Divine  revela- 
tion, in  tlie  position  of  a  spectator.  Just  as  the  scenes  of  future 
history  passed  in  vision  before  the  eyes  of  prophets,  leaving 
their  interpretation  to  the  events  themselves,  so  the  scenes  of 
creation  were  probably  exhibited  to  Moses  in  vision,  simply  as 
phenomena,  leaving  their  interpretation  to  the  discoveries  of 
science.  Only  these  leading  points  were  clearly  revealed : — that 
the  matter  of  the  world — the  visible  eartli  and  sky,  with  all  in 
them — instead  of  being  eternal  or  fortuitous,  was  called  into 
being  by  God.  Upon  a  state  of  unproductive  confusion,  to  which 
we  commonly  apply  the  name  borrowed  from  Greek  tradition, 
chaos  {{i.e.  emptiness) — whether  the  first  condition  of  the  world  or 
the  result  of  some  catastroj)he — Light  was  called  forth  by  His 
word.  Then  followed,  in  successive  stages,  the  duration  of  which 
is  left  undetermined  by  the  words  "  evening  "  and  "  morning," 
which  seem  to  describe  the  alternations  of  darkness  and  light  in  the 
Mosaic  vision, — the  spreading  abroad  of  the  visible  heaven,  and 
the  separation  of  the  waters  on  the  surface  of  the  earth  from  the 
aqueous  vapours  above, — next,  the  severance  of  the  great  masses 
of  land  and  water,  and  the  clothing  of  the  former  with  vegeta- 
tion,— next,  the  appearance  of  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  in  the 
heavens,  not  only  to  enlighten  the  earth,  but  to  mark  out  times 
and  seasons, — then,  the  creatures  of  the  water,  and  the  fowls  of 
the  air, — and  lastly,  the  terrestrial  animals,  and  man.  All  the 
living  beings  were  created  of  fixed  species,  each  with  the  power 
within  itself  of  reproducing  its  own  kind  ;  all  received  the  bless- 
ing of  fertility ;  and  to  man  was  given  dominion  over  the  rest. 
The  whole  was  crowned  with  the  Divine  approval  as  "  very 
good ;  "  and  the  cessation  of  God's  creative  work,  to  be  suc- 
ceeded by  the  maintenance  of  all  things  according  to  His  laws, 
was  marked  by  the  institution  of  the  Sabbath.  Man's  Sabbath, 
in  which  he  rests  from  working  for  subsistence,  and  engages  in 
the  godlike  work  of  "  doing  good  on  the  Sabbath-day,"  is  the 
sign  and  reflex  of  God's  Sabbath  of  providence  and  grace. 

A  more  particular  account  is  then  given  of  the  primeval  state 
of  the  human  race.     To  the  general  statement  that,  in  common 


THE  PRBIEVAL   STATE   OF  ItlAN.  1/ 

with  the  other  animals,  man  was  created  male  and  female,  is  now 
added  an  account  of  the  creation  of  the  woman  out  of  the  man, 
which  gives  sanctity  to  the  marriage-bond  by  the  community  of 
substance  as  well  as  nature.  But  this  crowning  gift  was  not 
bestowed  on  Adam,  for  so  was  the  first  man  named,  till  his  study 
of  all  other  living  creatures  had  proved  their  unfitness  to  furnish 
the  companion  of  his  life.  The  process  by  which  this  conclusion 
was  reached  shows  us  man  already  endowed  from  the  very  first 
with  the  faculties  of  observation  and  reasoning,  and  with  the 
power  of  Language :  for  the  names  that  he  gave  the  animals 
expressed  his  views  of  their  nature  ;  and  in  this  process  he  found 
an  occupation  akin  to  that  study  of  God's  works  which  is  still  a 
source  of  the  purest  pleasure.  The  labours  of  the  naturalist  are, 
in  fact,  a  continuation  of  the  process  which  began  with  Adam ; — 
God  presents  every  living  creature  to  the  view  of  man,  and  it  is 
man's  prerogative  to  give  them  names  suited  to  their  natures. 

That  this  process  was  completed  by  Adam  for  all  the  denizens 
of  all  the  climates,  is  one  of  those  narrow  literal  views  which  justly 
incur  the  contempt  of  science.  But  yet  it  seems  equally  absurd 
to  suppose  that  his  sphere  of  observation  was  confined  within 
such  narrow  limits  as  are  suggested  by  the  word  "  garden." 
The  sacred  writer's  description  of  his  "  paradise,"  or  "  pleasure 
ground,"  implies  an  extent  sufiicierit  to  give  scope  to  the  activi- 
ties of  a  nature  physically,  as  well  as  intellectually  and  morally, 
perfect.  The  locality  of  his  abode  is  one  of  the  vext  questions 
of  scriptural  interpretation.  Its  description  by  names  known  in 
historical  geography  must  have  been  intended  to  give  intelli- 
gible, though  very  general,  information.  Thus  much  seems  clear, 
that  Eden  lay  about  the  head-waters  of  four  great  rivers,  two  of 
which  were  the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris  (Hiddekel).  This  con- 
dition seems  to  fix  its  site  among  the  mountains  of  Armenia, 
south  of  the  Caucasus,  the  very  region  which  science  and  tradition 
concur  to  mark  as  the  cradle  of  the  noblest  variety  of  the  race 
subsequent  to  the  Deluge. 

In  this  beautiful  and  well-watered  garden,  planted  by  God 
himself,  and  kept  ever  fresh  by  a  mist  from  the  river — for  as  yet 
there  was  no  rain,  at  least  in  that  region — Adam  enjoyed  no 
fool's-paradise  of  dreamy  indolence.  His  occupation  of  keeping 
and  dressing  the  garden  implies  intelligent  and  steady  industry. 
It  was  the  easily  productive  nature  of  this  work  that  distinguished 
it  from  the  hard  and  scantily-repaid  toil  which  is  the  curse  of  sin. 
His  food  was  supplied  by  the  fruits  of  the  garden;  for  the  anin7als 

VOL.  I. — 2 


18  THE   CREATION   OF  THE  WORLD.  [Chap.  L 

were  not  yet  given  liim  to  eat.  Of  his  intellectual  culture  we  can 
form  but  faint  conjectures,  since  nearly  all  our  knowledge  comes 
from  the  past,  which  did  not  exist  for  him.  But  we  may  be  sure 
that  his  perfect  nature  had  capal>ilities  of  knowledge  surpassing 
any  since  possessed  by  his  descendants  ;  and  that  his  direct  com- 
munion with  God,  and  converse  with  His  new  creation,  laid 
broad  and  deep  foundations  for  that  wisdom,  which  he  lived  to 
transmit  to  seven  generations  of  his  children.  But  the  direct 
process  of  his  learning  and  the  absence  of  those  wants  which  are 
the  spur  of  invention,  forbid  our  regarding  him  as  versed  in  art 
and  science. 

The  highest  distinction  of  our  first  parents  was,  that  they  were 
made  in  the  image  of  God.  It  is  not  the  province  of  history  to 
enquire  what  relation  of  the  human  nature  to  the  divine  may  be 
implied  in  this  statement,  or  in  the  communication  of  life  to  man 
by  the  breath  of  God  ;  but  the  purest  consciousness  of  mankind 
testifies  to  his  essential  immortality.  Ilis  processes  of  thought, 
especially  as  applied  to  the  adaptation  of  nature  to  his  wants, 
need  only  be  compared  with  the  design  exhibited  in  the  works  of 
God,  to  prove  that  his  intellect  is  like  in  kind,  however  infinitely 
inferior  in  degree,  to  that  of  his  Creator.  Tlie  converse  of  this 
argument,  indeed,  forms  the  foundation  of  l!^atural  Theology.  But 
it  was  chiefly  the  moral  and  spiritual  image  of  God  that  was 
stamped  on  man  at  his  creation,  "  the  image  of  Him  who  created 
him  in  righteousness  and  true  holiness."  And  so,  when  the  Fall 
had  marred  this  moral  likeness  to  his  Creator  and  Father,  we  are 
told,  that  "  Adam  begat  a  son  in  his  own  likeness,  after  his  own 
image."  This  likeness  of  man  to  God  is  the  great  central  fact  of 
Vuman  history.  Its  first  bestowal  reveals  the  destiny  wliich  God 
marked  out  for  the  race.  Its  loss  was  the  first  great  catastrophe, 
and  its  recovery  will  be  the  final  consummation,  of  the  world's 
history.  God,  creating  man  in  His  own  likeness,  foreshadowed 
the  coming  of  the  Redeemer  in  tlie  likeness  of  man,  to  reunite 
him  to  his  God.  Meanwhile  all  the  scenes  of  selfish  and  mur- 
derous passion,  which  fill  so  large  a  space  in  the  page  of  history, 
are  examples  of  man's  departure  from  the  image  of  his  God :  all 
the  acts  of  self-denying  virtue  and  devoted  love,  which  shed  light 
upon  the  page,  are  but  reflections  of  that  Divine  likeness  which 
God  did  not  permit  even  sin  entirely  to  obliterate. 


.J 

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uiiuiiiouiiiiiiMjm 


THE  FALL  OP  MAN.  19 


CHAPTER  11. 


FROM    THE   FALL   TO    THE   DELUGE;    OR,   THE    CATASTROPHE 

OF  SIN. 


"  It  repented  the  Lohd  that  He  had  made  man  on  the  earth,  and  it  grieved  Him  at  His 
heart." — Genesis,  vi.  6. 

FIRST  REVOLUTIONARY  EPOCH  IN  HISTORY — SIN  AND  GRACE — THE  FALL  OP  MAN — THE  CURSE  AND 
PROMISE— CONFLICT  OP  GOOD  AND  EVIL— CAIN  AND  ABEL — THE  CAINITE  AND  SETHITE  RACES — 
ENERGY  AND  LAWLESSNESS  OP  THE  CAINITES — LAMECH's  POLYGAMY  AND  MURDER — RELIGION 
OF  THE  SETHITES — INTERMARRIAGE  OF  THE  RACES,  AND  CONSEQUENT  CORRUPTION  OP  MAN — 
MORAL  AND  MATERIAL  CONDITION  OF  THE  ANTEDILUVIANS — THE  DELUGE — DIFFICULTIES  IN 
THE  NARRATIVE — DESTRUCTION  AND  RESTORATION  OF  THE  WORLD — GOd's  COVENANT  OF  FOR- 
BEARANCE  MADE  WITH  NOAH — TRADITIONS  OF  THE  FLOOD — ANTEDILUVIAN  LONGEVITY. 

HisTOKY,  we  have  said,  is  divided  by  revolutionary  epochs. 
Tlie  first  of  these  was  the  entrance  of  sin,  as  St.  Paul  emphatically 
calls  it,  thereby  marking  it  as  an  intrusive  element ;  while,  in  the 
same  breath,  he  explains  the  mystery  of  its  permission,  to  make 
way  for  the  principle  of  grace.  A  recent  historian  of  the  French 
Kevolution  has  not  shrunk  from  proclaiming  the  antagonism 
between  the  "  rights  of  man  "  and  the  doctrine  that  we  receive 
all  good  from  the  grace  of  God.  But  the  Scripture  teaches  that 
God  will  permit  no  such  antagonism,  and  that  the  fall  of  man 
has  left  with  God  alone  all  the  glory  of  his  restoration.  Hold- 
ing out  to  man  every  inducement  to  obedience,  and  warning 
him  of  the  fatal  results  of  disobedience,  God  left  him  free  to 
choose  between  them,  and  even  provided  a  test  by  which  he  was 
to  stand  or  fall.  That  test  was  suited  to  the  possibilities  of  evil, 
which  all  subsequent  experience  has  proved  to  exist  in  the  human 
breast.  The  form  which  the  trial  assumed  need  not  surprise  us, 
if  we  only  bear  in  mind  how  large  a  part  of  the  Divine  teaching 
is  by  actions.  The  presence  in  Eden  of  the  tree  of  the  knowledge 
of  good  and  evil,  the  appearance  and  address  of  the  serpent  to 
the  woman's  senses,  and  the  eating  of  the  forbidden  fruit,  instead 
of  needing  any  mythical  or  allegorical  interpretation,  show  us  the 
reality  of  the  whole  transaction.  Then,  as  now,  the  impulse  of 
sin  was  perfected  in  an  overt  act.  But  the  scene,  though  real, 
was  symbolical.  The  neglect  of  the  tree  of  life,  and  the  wilful 
plucking  of  the  fruit  of  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  is  the  same 
choice  which  man  is  ever  making  between  the  true  source  of 


20  FROM  THE  FALL  TO  THE  DELUGE.  [Chap.  H. 

happiness — spiritual  life — and  the  pride  of  doubting  God,  the 
lust  of  knowing  and  enjoying  evil  as  well  as  good.  The  fasci- 
nations of  the  forLiddcn  tree,  which  tempted  tlie  woman,  arc  the 
same  three  sources  of  evil  which  liave  misled  all  her  children — 
"  tlie  lust  of  the  flesh,  tlie  lust  of  the  eye,  and  the  pride  of  life." 
The  readiness  of  Adam  to  share  his  wife's  transgression  is  the  tj^e 
of  that  companionship  in  evil  which  gives  sin  its  chief  hold  upon 
our  race. 

Another  power  was  concerned  in  the  catastrophe  ;  forming, 
indeed,  its  immediate  cause.  Ah'cady  placed  in  direct  communion 
witli  God,  man  was  now  solicited,  on  the  other  hand,  by  a  spirit- 
ual being,  who  liad  fallen  from  happiness  by  that  sin  to  which  it 
became  his  malignant  pleasure  to  tempt  man.  To  omit  the 
distinct  recognition  of  Satanic  agency  from  our  narrative  would 
be  to  deny  one  of  the  mainsprings  of  the  world's  history.  This 
is  not  the  place  to  dwell  on  the  theological  aspect  of  the  ques- 
tion ;  but  the  teaching  of  Scripture  is  too  well  confirmed  by  our 
own  experience  of  the  malignant  envy  against  goodness,  the  mis- 
chievous ingenuity  in  destroying  it,  and  the  eagerness  to  taunt 
and  torment  their  fallen  victims,  which  mark  those  whom  the 
Divine  word  therefore  calls  the  children  of  the  devil.  Whatever 
licence  Milton  may  have  given  his  imagination,  his  general  con- 
ception of  Satan's  relations  to  our  first  parents  is  true ;  and  the 
traditions  of  many  nations,  identifying  the  serpent  with  the  prin- 
ciple of  evil,  bear  witness  to  the  form  of  the  temptation. 

The  first  human  pair  had  thus  chosen,  and  all  their  progeny 
have  by  their  own  personal  fall  confirmed  the  choice,  between 
life  in  the  light  of  God's  favour,  and  independence  of  Him  at  the 
price  of  death.  But  the  sentence  was  mitigated  in  itself,  and  a 
glorious  promise  was  given  of  its  ultimate  revei*sal.  While  the 
fallen  beings  were  already  cowering  beneath  that  sense  of  shame 
which  is  the  first  symptom  and  penalty  of  conscious  sin,  and 
afraid  to  meet  the  God  whom  they  had  till  now  loved.  He  called 
them,  with  the  serpent,  to  receive  their  sentence.  Tlie  grovelling 
form  and  habits  assigned  to  the  serpent  were  the  type  of  the 
ultimate  conquest  of  the  evil  spirit  by  the  very  off*spring  of  the 
woman,  who  should  not,  however,  achieve  the  victory  without  a 
deadly  wound  from  his  antagonist ; — a  clear  promise  of  the  Re- 
deemer's destniction  of  sin  by  His  own  death.  As  for  the  human 
pair,  the  chief  objects  of  their  present  life  were  still  to  be  accom- 
plished before  they  returned  to  the  earth  from  which  they  had 
been  taken,  but  to  be  accomplished  amidst  sharp  suficring  and 


IRIAN'S  EXPULSION  FROM  PARADISE.  21 

•wearing  toil.  Still,  in  this  curse  there  were  the  seeds  of  a  bless- 
ing. The  woman's  pangs  were  to  be  consoled  by  the  hope  of  the 
great  Deliverer  who  was  to  be  her  seed  :  the  man's  toils  were  to 
be  rewarded  by  the  fruits  which  the  earth  would  henceforth  yield, 
though  only  to  hard  labour.  The  joys  of  Paradise  must  be 
renounced  ;  but  the  whole  earth  was  to  be  replenished  and  sub- 
dued. Access  to  the  tree  of  life  was  cut  off ;  but  immortality  in 
the  fallen  state  would  have  been  misery,  and  a  far  better  immor- 
tality remained  to  be  revealed.  The  best  evidence  that  Adam 
understood  the  promise  is  seen  in  the  new  name  he  gave  his  wife, 
Eve  (the  Iwing),  as  the  mother  of  a  truly  living  race,  and  chiefly 
of  Him  who  was  to  be  their  life. 

Tliat  the  rite  of  sacrifice  was  now  instituted  by  God  himself, 
in  confirmation  of  His  promise,  and  as  a  type  of  the  satisfaction 
for  sin  by  the  death  of  a  substitute  for  the  sinner,  is  inferred  with 
the  highest  probability  from  the  narrative.  In  no  other  way  can 
we  reasonably  explain  the  death  of  the  animals  with  whose  skins 
God  clothed  Adam  and  Eve ;  and  the  story  of  Cain  and  Abel 
shows  us  the  institution  already  established. 

Adam  and  Eve  went  forth  into  the  wide  world,  carrying  with 
them  the  fallen  nature  and  corrupt  tendencies  which  were  the 
present  fruit  of  their  sin,  but  with  faith  in  the  promise  of  redemp- 
tion. Of  this  faith  as  well  as  of  their  shortsighted  expectation  of 
its  fulfilment,  Eve  gave  a  proof  at  the  birth  of  her  eldest  son,  by 
exclaiming,  "  I  have  gotten  a  man,  Jehovah."  The  whole  sub- 
sequent history  of  their  race  exhibits  the  conflict  of  these  two 
principles  ;  and  its  first  period,  down  to  the  Deluge,  was  a  scene 
of  steady  decline,  till  redemption  seemed  hardly  possible.  The 
conflict  appeared  in  the  first  generation  of  their  children.  Cain, 
the  husbandman,  and  Abel,  the  shepherd,  are  representatives  of 
the  two  great  divisions  of  the  human  race,  not  so  much  in  their 
occupations  as  in  their  characters.  The  command  of  God  to  ofifer 
sacrifice,  not  only  in  acknowledgment  of  His  goodness,  but  as  a 
confession  of  sin,  formed  a  new  test  of  obedience.  We  are  assured 
by  Paul  that  Abel  brought  his  ofiering  in  faith  ;  while  the  selfish 
pride  of  Cain's  is  proved  by  his  resentment,  his  murderous  re- 
venge, and  his  sullen  despair.  While  he  went  forth  from  his 
father's  home  and  his  father's  God  into  the  land  of  Nod  (that  is, 
eaeih),  to  seek  a  new  abode  on  the  earth,  which  had  been  cursed 
anew  for  him,  and  with  his  life  only  protected  by  the  mark  of 
God's  displeasure,  another  son — Seth — was  given  to  Eve  in  place 
of  Abel ;  and  these  two  became  the  heads  of  races  morally  and 


23  FROM  THE  FALL  TO  THE  DELUGE.         [Chap.  IL 

spiritually  distinct.  Cain  and  his  descendants  bnilt  the  first  citieS; 
and  invented  tlie  arts  of  music  and  metal-work,  which  are  asso- 
ciated respectively  with  the  names  of  Jubal  and  Tubal-cain, 
whose  brother  Jabal  took  up  the  life  of  the  nomad  herdsman. 
But  the  restless  energy  that  led  them  to  these  inventions  was 
associated  with  the  lawless  ferocity  that  we  see  in  their  father 
Lamech's  address  to  his  two  wives,  the  earliest  piece  of  poetry  on 
record,  in  which  he  avows  the  guilt  of  murder,  and  anticipates  a 
vengeance  many  times  as  great  as  that  of  Cain.*  But  in  the  fam- 
ily of  Seth  the  true  worship  of  God  was  preserved.  In  the  time 
of  his  son  Enos,  we  are  told,  men  began  to  call  themselves  by  the 
name  of  Jehovah,  avowing  themselves  His  servants,  as  a  protest 
against  the  increasing  ungodliness.  Enoch,  the  seventh  patriarch 
of  the  line,  is  celebrated  in  antediluvian  history  for  his  close  walk 
with  God,  his  denunciations  of  the  wickedness  of  his  times,  his 
prophecy  of  the  coming  of  God  to  judge  the  world,  and  his 
"translation"  from  the  earth  without  dying, — a  sign  that  the 
promise  of  eternal  life  was  already  reversing  the  curse  of  death. 

Meanwhile  the  distinction  between  the  Cainite  and  Sethite 
races  was  gradually  broken  down  by  intermarriages,  in  which 
desire  overcame  the  fear  of  God  ;  for  this  is  the  only  sober  inter- 
pretation of  the  union  between  "  the  sons  of  God  *'  and  ''  the 
daughters  of  men."  From  these  intermarriages  sprang  a  race  not 
of  "  giants,"  but  of  lawless  men,  by  whom  the  earth  was  filled 
with  violence.  The  ntter  dissolution  of  all  moral  bonds,  and  the 
recklessness  of  the  Divine  judgment,  are  referred  to  by  our  Lord, 
and  more  fully  described  by  St.  Peter  and  St.  Jude;  in  each  ease 
as  the  type  of  a  like  state  of  unbridled  licence  which  will  precede 
the  end  of  the  world.  Thus  at  each  stage  of  human  history  it  is 
demonstrated  that  the  present  order  of  things  is  doomed  to  pass 
away,  not  so  much  because  the  physical  world  is  perishable,  but 
still  more  because  the  degeneracy  of  man  has  reached,  and  will 
again  reach,  a  depth  incurable  but  by  entire  destruction  and 
renovation.  No  progress  in  the  material  arts  of  life  can  ensure 
us  against  such  moral  declension.  When  we  read  of  the  inventions 
of  the  Cainite  race,  and  reflect  upon  the  ojiportunities  famished 
by  antediluvian  longevity  for  retaining  that  knowledge  which  the 
short-lived  races  of  later  men  are  ever  losing  and  regaining,  we 
may  well  believe  that  they  had  reached  a  material  civilization 
still  unknown  to  us.  But  later  ages  are  not  without  the  warning, 
that  this  is  the  very  source  of  moral  degeneracy.  Wlien  the  con- 
*  We  have  here  also  the  earliest  example  of  polygamy. 


STATE   OF   THE  ANTEDILUVIAN  WORLD.  23 

quest  of  matter  is  so  far  achieved  as  to  enable  man  not  only  to 
use  but  abuse,  that  is,  to  use  up  the  world  for  his  own  selfish 
pleasure,  every  moral  restraint  is  removed,  except  the  fear  of  God 
and  the  faith  of  unseen  things;  and  this  motive  is  felt  but  by 
very  few.  Those  few  were  represented,  in  the  world  before  the 
Flood,  by  one  man  only,  UToah,  who  was  just  and  upright  in  his 
family,  and,  like  Enoch,  walked  with  God.  So  he  was  chosen  to 
renew  the  race  after  its  removal  by  a  flood  of  waters.  For  there 
was  this  distinction  between  the  treatment  of  the  first  and  final 
apostacy  of  mankind : — In  the  latter,  all  that  is  mortal  and  material 
will  be  utterly  destroyed  by  fire,  as  too  coiTupt  for  any  milder 
remedy,  to  make  way  for  a  new  heaven  and  earth,  the  abode  of 
that  spiritual  excellence  which  alone  is  indestructible.  But  the 
Flood,  so  to  speak,  only  cleansed  the  surface  of  the  earth ;  and  the 
rescued  family,  instead  of  receiving  a  new  nature,  did  but  make  a 
fresh  start,  with  all  the  evil  tendencies  of  the  old  race,  as  their  his- 
tory soon  proved.  "Wearied  out  with  man's  wickedness,  and  re- 
penting of  having  made  him  (we  do  but  adopt  His  own  figurative 
language),  God  would  not  make  the  race  extinct  before  His  prom- 
ise of  redemption  was  fulfilled.  That  promise  was  the  most  pre- 
cious of  the  deposits  which  Noah  carried  with  him  into  the  Ark. 
For  the  rest,  we  are  not  called  upon  either  to  invent,  or  to 
explain  away,  difiiculties  which  are  not  found  in  the  sacred  narra- 
tive. Once  for  all,  let  us  speak  out  upon  the  subject.  We  accept 
the  Bible  as  a  record  of  the  highest  credibility,  as  truly  the  inspired 
"Word  of  God,  without  encumbering  our  faith  with  theories  of 
inspiration.  We  test  and  intei'pret  its  statements  by  the  same 
rules  of  common  sense  which  we  apply  to  other  historic  records. 
In  relating  external  events,  we  do  not  expect  the  historian  to  be 
precise  about  their  hidden  and  intrinsic  nature  ;  just  as  we  do  not 
expect  even  the  astronomer,  in  using  the  language  of  common 
life,  to  carry  back  the  heavenly  bodies  beyond  the  visible  sky. 
In  a  word,  the  language  of  historic  description  is,  in  the  vast 
majority  of  cases,  2>henomenaI,  not  absohite.  It  is  a  true  account, 
if  it  truly  describes  the  appearances  of  things  to  a  spectator.  But 
for  a  man  to  insist  on  understanding  those  appearances  as  abso- 
lute realities,  and  that  according  to  the  narrowest  literal  sense  of 
the  words  used,  is  to  impose  fetters  upon  the  sacred  text,  beneath 
which  no  secular  historian  could  move  a  single  step.  Tlie  attempt 
thus  to  compel  our  faith  is  most  unwise ;  but  when  the  like 
method  is  insisted  on  to  drive  us  to  unbelief,  we  can  scarcely 
speak  of  it  with  moderation. 


34  FROM  THE  FALL   TO   THE  DELUGE.  [Chap.  H. 

It  matters  notliing  to  our  understanding  of  the  simple  narrative 
of  Scri2:>ture,  whether  the  waters  of  the  Deluge  covered  the  whole 
globe,  provided  that  they  covered  the  small  portion  known  to  Noah, 
and  peopled  by  the  two  existing  races  of  men.  We  are  left  free 
to  accept  the  plain  proofs  furnished  by  astronomy  and  mechanics, 
by  geology  and  physical  geography,  that  the  Deluge  could  not 
have  been  universal  unless  the  laws  of  all  nature  had  been 
puspended.  With  this  error  vanishes  that  of  requiring  room  in 
the  Ark  for  all  the  species  of  animals,  or  indeed  for  any  beyond 
those  which  the  family  of  Noah  would  care  to  preserve,  chiefly  for 
domestic  use  and  sacrifice.  Reduced  to  this  form,  the  problem  of 
the  Ark's  adaptation  to  its  use  is  narrowed  within  a  compass  that 
need  not  create  alarm  ;  and,  feeling  no  necessity  to  work  out  its 
details,  we  trust  more  to  the  definite  dimensions  given  in  an 
authentic  history  than  to  the  corrections  of  the  acutcst  arith- 
metician. And  in  all  similar  cases,  when  the  historical  credibility 
of  a  record  is  once  established  on  the  broad  gromids  of  evidence, 
we  can  afibrd  to  await  the  explanation  of  minute  difficulties, 
without  permitting  them  to  unsettle  our  belief.* 

A  respite  of  120  years,  during  which  Noah,  as  a  preacher  of 
righteousness,  reproved  the  world  both  by  word  and  example, 
produced  no  amendment ;  and,  even  during  the  building  of  the 
Ark,  they  went  on  "  eating  and  drinking,  marrying  and  giving  in 
marriage,  and  regarded  it  not,  till  the  day  that  Noah  entered  into 
the  Ark,  and  the  flood  came  and  took  them  all  away."  The  date 
of  this  memorable  epoch  was  handed  down  by  Noah  to  the  very 
day.  It  was  m  the  600th  year  of  Noah's  life,  on  the  10th  day 
of  the  2nd  month  (b.c.  2349,  Ussher),  that  he  entered  into  the 
Ark  with  his  wife,  his  three  sons  and  their  wives,  with  the  clean 
animals  by  sevens,  and  the  unclean  animals  by  pairs,  and  God 
shut  them  all  in.  After  a  solemn  pause  of  seven  days,  the 
sources  of  the  earth's  waters  and  the  clouds  of  the  sky  were 
broken  up  at  onee,  and  poured  forth  their  floods  for  40  days  and 
nights,  covering  the  whole  surface  of  the  earth.  The  surprise  and 
terror  of  this  sudden  judgment  form  a  theme  for  the  poet  and 
the  painter.  It  is  enough  for  us  to  see  in  that  unbroken  sheet 
of  water  the  first  end  of  a  world  ruined  by  sin,  and  in  the  Ark, 
which  floats  alone  upon  its  surface,  not  only  the  promise  of  a  new 
history  for  our  race,  but  the  far  higlier  type  suggested  by  the 
Apostle  Peter,  of  the  salvation  which  God  ever  grants  to  those 

*  It  may  be  observed,  that  the  definite  measures  of  the  Ark  prove  that  a  metrical 
eystem  was  ah-eady  invented. 


B.C.  2348.]  THE  COVENANT  WITH  NOAH.  26 

who  remain  faithful  amidst  an  ungodly  world.  The  waters  of  the 
flood  were  at  their  height  for  150  days ;  and  as  they  began  to 
abate,  the  Ark  rested  on  some  point  of  Mount  Ararat,  on  the 
17th  day  of  the  Yth  month.  It  was  not  till  the  first  day  of  the 
10th  month  that  the  summits  of  the  hills  began  to  appear ;  and 
l!^oah  waited  40  days  more  before  he  made  those  well-known 
experiments  with  the  raven  and  dove,  which,  besides  furnishing 
a  fruitful  theme  for  poetry,  seem  to  indicate  his  observance  of  the 
Sabbath. 

At  length,  on  the  first  day  of  the  601st  year  of  his  life  (b.c. 
2348,  Ussher),  Noah  removed  the  covering  of  the  Ark,  and  looked 
out  upon  the  earth  now  cleared  of  the  flood  ;  and  on  the  27th  day 
of  the  2nd  month,  at  God's  command,  he  left  tlie  Ark,  with  all 
that  were  in  it.  He  celebrated  his  deliverance  by  a  great  bumt- 
oftering  of  all  kinds  of  clean  animals ;  and  God's  acceptance  of 
this  sacrifice  marks  a  new  epoch  in  the  history  of  our  race.  Stand- 
ing by  his  own  altar  with  his  sons,  about  to  go  forth  on  to  the 
renewed  face  of  the  earth,  Noah's  prophetic  spirit  might  have 
anticipated  the  coiTuption  which  would  soon  call  for  the  waters  of 
another  flood.  But  God  assured  him  that  the  judgment  was  not 
to  be  repeated.  The  order  of  the  seasons,  and  the  produce  of  the 
earth,  were  secm-ed  by  a  Divine  promise  to  the  very  end  of  time. 
Till  that  end,  man  was  to  live  under  the  dispensation  of  God's 
forbearance,  and  so  to  work  out  his  full  destiny. 

This  promise  was  confirmed  by  the  first  of  those  covenants,  or 
solemn  agreements,  by  which  it  has  pleased  God  to  give  a  double 
security  to  our  faith  ;  and  the  remembrance  of  the  covenant  was 
perpetuated  by  the  bright  and  beautiful  token  of  the  rainbow. 
It  has  been  conjectured,  that  till  the  time  of  the  Flood,  the  earth 
was  still  watered  by  the  abundant  mists  that  prevailed  before  any 
extensive  cultivation  of  its  surface.*  If  so,  the  rainbow  would 
be  as  new  a  source  of  joy,  as  the  deluge  itself  had  been  of  terror. 
But  even  if  this  hypothesis  be  rejected,  and  it  be  granted  that 
the  rainbow  had  often  appeared  before,  it  now  received  a  new 
significance,  which  it  has  ever  since  borne,  for  the  devout 
beholder. 

The  memory  of  the  Noachic  Deluge  is  preserved  in  the  tradi- 
tions of  nearly  every  people  of  the  earth  ;  and  most  of  the  hea- 
then mythologies  have  some  kind  of  sacred  ark.     These  traditions, 

*  This  applies,  of  course,  only  to  the  countries  known  to  the  antediluvians. 
Geological  evidence  of  rain  elsewhere,  and  at  another  stage  of  the  world's  history, 
has  no  connexion  with  this  statement. 


26  FROM  THE  FALL  TO  THE  DELUGE.  [Chap.  IL 

which  arc,  in  most  cases,  far  too  minute  to  be  explained  by  any 
mere  local  inundations,  attest  a  common  origin  from  Xoah.  It 
is  remarkable,  too,  that  they  are  simpler  and.  more  distinct  in  pro- 
portion as  we  approach  the  original  seat  of  mankind.  Thus,  the 
Chaldeans,  the  people  who  formed  the  most  ancient  perhaps  of  all 
nations,  placed  a  general  deluge  in  the  reign  of  Xisuthrus,  whose 
alleged  place  in  the  succession  of  their  kings  (the  tenth)  corre- 
sponds to  that  of  Noah  among  the  generations  of  mankind. 
This  tradition  corresponds  to  the  scriptural  account,  in  the  divine 
warning  (by  the  god  Kronos  or  Saturn), — the  preservation  of 
Xisuthrus  and  his  family,  with  all  kinds  of  animals,  in  a  great 
ark, — the  destruction  of  all  the  rest  of  mankind, — the  thrice- 
repeated  experiment  with  the  birds,  and  the  final  resting  of  the 
ark  on  a  mountain  in  Armenia.  The  Persian  tradition  is  less 
clear  than  that  which  is  found  at  the  extremities  of  the  world, 
among  the  Chinese  in  the  East,  and  the  Mexicans  in  the  West. 
All  are  acquainted  with  the  Greek  legend  of  Deucalion  and 
Pyrrha. 

We  do  not  consider  it  necessary  to  discuss  the  question  of 
antediluvian  longevity.  There  is  nothing  improbable  in  the 
enjoyment  of  great  length  of  days  in  the  first  vigour  of  our  race  ; 
and  the  Scripture  certainly  marks  the  shortening  of  human  life 
as  at  once  the  fruit  and  the  penalty  of  sin.  We  can  see  one  great 
use  of  such  longevity  in  the  more  rapid  peopling  of  the  earth, 
and  another  in  the  transmission  of  knowledge  by  a  very  few  steps 
over  a  very  long  period.  Thus,  according  to  the  numbers  of  our 
received  text  of  the  Bible,  Adam  was  more  than  60  years  the 
contemporary  of  l^oah's  father,  Lamech  ;  and  Shem,  the  son  of 
Noah,  died  only  24  years  before  the  death  of  Abraham.  Shem 
may  therefore  have  related  to  Abraham  what  Lamech  had  heard 
from  Adam.  But,  in  accepting  these  genealogies  as  possessing 
historic  credibility,  we  are  not  bound  down  to  any  definite 
chronological  results  obtained  by  adding  together  their  numbei*s, 
which  differ,  as  we  have  already  seen,  in  the  difierent  chief 
copies  of  the  Scripture.  The  same  remark  applies  to  the  Post- 
diluvian patriarchs. 


THE  NOACHIC  PRECEPTS;  37 


CHAPTER  III. 


THE  post-diltjyia:n'  world,  from  the  deluge  to  the 

DISPERSION;  OR,  MAN'S  SECOND  PROBATION  AND  FAJX. 


"  Heroes  and  Kings,  obey  the  charm, 
Withdraw  the  proud  high-reaching  arm, — 

There  is  an  oath  on  high. 
That  ne'er  on  brow  of  mortal  birth 
Shall  blend  again  the  crowns  of  earth, 

Nor,  in  according  cry, 

"  Her  many  voices  mingling,  own 
One  tyrant  Lord,  one  idol  throne : 

But  to  His  triumph  soon 
He  shall  descend,  who  rules  above, 
And  the  pure  language  of  His  love 

All  tongues  of  men  shall  tune." — Keble. 


IHB  NOACHIC  PEECEPTS — ABSTINENCE  FROM  BLOOD — SENTENCE  AGAINST  MPEDEE — THE  PRIir- 
CIPLE  OF  LAW  AND  THE  ACTHORITT  OF  THE  MAGISTRATE — ORIGIN  OF  CIVIL  SOCIETY — THE 
PATRIARCHAL  CONSTITOTION — AUTHORITY  OF  THE  PATRIARCH  BOTH  CIVIL  AND  EELIGIOCS — 
REMNANTS  OF  THE  PATRIARCHAL  FORM  OF  GOVERNMENT — INCIDENTS  OF  THE  POST-DILUVIAN 
HISTORY — NOAH's  FALL,  AND  HAm's  INSULT — THE  PROPHETIC  CURSE  AND  BLESSINGS  ON  HAM, 
SHEM,  AND  JAPHETH — DIVISION  OF  THE  EARTH  IN  THE  TIME  OF  PELEG — MONARCHY  OF 
KIUEOD — CITY  AND  TOWER  OF  BABEL — CONFUSION  OF  TONGUES. 

When  JSToah.  and  his  family  left  tlie  Ark,  to  people  the  world 
anew,  God  repeated  to  tliem  the  blessing  He  had  pronounced  on 
Adam  ;  they  were  to  be  fruitful,  and  multiply,  and  replenish  the 
earth,  and  to  subdue  all  living  creatures  beneath  their  govern- 
ment. But  their  new  state  was  marked  by  new  laws.  All  the 
animals  were  granted  to  them  for  food,  as  the  herbs  and  fruits 
had  been  granted  to  Adam ;  nor  were  they  restricted  to  those 
afterwards  defined  by  the  Mosaic  law  as  clean.  !N"o  reason  is 
given  for  this  change  ;  but,  coupling  the  principle,  that  laws  are 
made  for  existing  practices,  with  what  we  know  of  the  ante- 
diluvian age,  we  may  view  it  as  an  example  of  God's  conde- 
scension in  permitting  practices  which  it  would  have  been  hard 
for  human  nature  to  give  up.  This  opinion  seems  confirmed  by  the 
emphatic  prohibition  against  the  use  of  blood  for  food.  We  may 
well  believe  that,  in  those  antediluvian  feasts  to  which  our  Lord 
■  refers,  not  only  was  animal  food  indulged  in,  but  even  blood  was 
not  refrained  from,  especially  by  a  people  who  set  at  naught  other 
first  laws  of  nature.     And,  as  the  use  of  bloody  banquets  marks  a 


28 


THE  POST-DILUVIAN  WORLD.  [Chap.  HL 


8an<,'uinary  disposition,  tliis  proliibition  of  Wood  is  naturally  asso- 
ciated witli  the  second  of  tlie  new  laws,  that  against  murder,  the 
crime  which  liad  stained  the  antediluvian  age,  from  Cain  to  his 
descendiiJit  Lainecli.  Murder  was  not  now  first  made  a  crime. 
Tlie  blood  of  the  murdered  lunl  from  the  first  cried  to  God  from 
the  very  earth  that  had  drunk  it  up.  The  new  point  in  the  law 
seems  to  liave  been  this :  under  the  previous  dispensation  the  mur« 
derer  was  left  in  the  hands  of  God,  a  devoted  being,  whom  man 
must  not  touch,  even  in  the  way  of  vengeance  ;  but  now  lie  was 
handed  over  to  human  law.  "  "Whoso  sheddeth  man's  blood,  ly 
man  shall  his  blood  be  shed.''  Tlie  reason  is  given  for  the  mur- 
derer's death,  that  he  had  defaced  God's  image  in  his  victim ; 
and  to  enforce  the  sanctity  of  that  image,  even  the  beast  who 
should  kill  a  man  must  be  put  to  death.  Such  are  the  first 
exftm]>les  of  positive  law  committed  to  the  administration  of 
man  ;  for  the  law  of  the  forbidden  fruit  was  in  the  hands  of  God 
alone,  who  could  alone  enforce  its  penalty ;  and  His  law  of 
labour  carried  with  it  its  o^vn  penalty  of  want.  Tlie  former, 
indeed,  was  not  a  law  to  regulate  life,  but  a  special  trial  to  test 
the  spirit  of  obedience.  Henceforth,  therefore,  man  lived  under 
LAW,  a  dispensation  which  antediluvian  lawlessness  had  proved 
necessarv.  The  laws  against  murder  and  the  eating  of  blood, 
and  the  authority  of  the  civil  magistrate  to  punish  the  criminal, 
mav  be  regarded  as  the  new  code  of  the  human  race,  under  the 
name  of  the  Noaciiic  Precepts.  We  are  not  to  suppose  that  they 
include  all  the  positive  law  of  that  early  age.  Marriage  had  been 
instituted  from  the  first ;  and  the  recognition  of  civil  authority,  as 
a  principle,  would  naturally  include  all  that  the  common-sense  of 
mankind  regarded  as  needful  for  protecting  life,  property,  and 
good  order,  and  enforcing  subjection  to  and  reverence  for  God. 
Hence  the  Jews  extended  the  Noachic  precepts  which  were  bind- 
ing on  Gentile  proselytes  to  seven — the  other  four  being  the  laws 
against  idolatry,  blasphemy,  incest,  and  theft. 

Thus  the  elements  of  civil  society  were  established  before  the 
Family  had  grown  into  the  State,  forming  what  is  called  the 
Patkiarciial  CoNSTrruTiON,  And  in  this  earliest  form  of  social 
order  Ave  may  observe  the  truth  of  Aristotle's  great  saying,  that 
the  State  exists  not  merely  that  man  may  live^  but  that  he  may 
live  icelL  By  the  first  principles  of  nature  and  common-sense,  the 
government  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Patriarch  {the  faiher- 
ruUi').  It  was  ensured  to  Noah  by  his  peculiar  position  and 
character,     AVhcn  it  was  called  in  question  by  his  son's  contempt, 


B.C.  2348.]  THE  PATRIARCHAL  CONSTITUTION.  29 

lie  did  not  shrink  from  using  his  authority,  even  to  the  extent  of 
a  terrible  prophetic  curse.  The  same  example  shows  that  the 
patriarch's  authority  did  not  cease  even  when  his  sons  had  house- 
holds of  their  own  ;  for  Ham  was  abeady  the  father  of  Canaan 
when  lie  incurred  his  father's  censure.  And  this  rule  continued 
throughout  the  patriarchal  age.  The  first  living  ancestor  had 
supreme  jurisdiction  over  all  the  families  descended  from  him; 
while  each  family  respected  also  the  government  of  its  own  im- 
mediate head.  Thus  it  was  with  Abraham,  as  he  dwelt  in  tents 
with  Isaac  and  Jacob,  the  heirs  of  the  promise  given  to  him  ;  but 
we  also  see  Judah  claiming  the  power  of  life  and  death  over  his 
daughter-in-law,  while  Jacob  is  still  alive. 

This  patriarchal  government  was  religious  as  well  as  civil.  The 
patriarch  was  the  priest.  In  this  character  Noah  offered  sacrifice ; 
Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  built  altars,  and  called  on  the  name 
of  the  Lord ;  and  both  heads  of  houses  and  civil  rulers  are  found 
sacrificing  even  after  the  institution  of  a  priesthood.  It  included 
also  the  right  of  dividing  the  inheritance,  which  we  find  exer- 
cised by  Noah,  in  his  prophetic  blessing  and  curse  on  his  three 
sons,  by  Abraham,  by  Isaac,  and  by  Jacob,  the  last  going  so  far 
as  to  choose  the  heir  of  his  own  heir  in  Ephraim,  the  younger  son 
of  Joseph.  But  in  the  exercise  of  this  power,  there  was  a  cus- 
tomary mle :  the  inheritance  was  divided  into  equal  parts,  of 
which  the  heir  received  two  and  the  other  sons  one. 

In  the  Book  of  Job,  which,  whatever  be  its  date,  preserves  the 
record  of  primitive  patriarchal  institutions,  we  see  the  system  still 
in  action  after  the  establishment  of  cities.  ■  In  his  own  family  Job 
rules  over  his  sons,  though  they  had  their  own  se]3arate  house- 
holds ;  while,  in  the  city,  he  sits  in  the  gateway  with  the  other 
elders,  receiving  the  honour  due  to  his  station,  and  administering 
justice  in  his  turn.  Thus  did  the  pure  patriarchal  government 
gradually  merge  into  that  of  patriarchal  elders,  the  primitive 
type  of  aristocracy.  But  neither  this,  nor  the  more  artificial 
forms  of  civil  government,  have  entirely  superseded  the  patri- 
archal :  it  still  exists  where  it  is  suited  to  the  state  of  society. 
The  Arab  descendants  of  Abraham  still  live  in  tents,  with  the 
government  of  the  oldest  living  ancestor  scarcely  changed  ;  and 
savage  tribes  scattered  over  the  earth,  especially  those  in  the  no- 
mad state,  have  preserved  this  relic  of  their  primitive  condition. 

The  incidents  of  post-diluvian  history  are  few  ;  and  these  few 
bear  witness  to  the  renewed  corruption  of  mankind.  We  are  not 
told  how  long  the  rescued  family  lingered  among  the  highlands 


30  THE  POST-DILUVIAN  WORLD.  [Chap.  HI. 

of  Armenia,  before  they  dispersed  tliemselves  over  the  primeval 
forests  and  the  alhivial  pLains,  whieh  tliey  had  to  subdue  before 
they  could  rcplenisli.  Noah  began  the  life  of  a  husbandman,  and 
planted  a  vineyard  ;  and  the  righteous  man,  who  had  escaped  the 
lusts  of  the  oid  world,  was  overcome  by  shameful  intoxication. 
Then  it  was  proved  that  in  his  family,  as  in  that  of  Adam,  there 
was  the  distinction  between  the  evil  and  the  good :  the  wanton 
insolence  of  Ham,  and  the  filial  piety  of  Shem  and  Japheth, 
received  the  curse  and  the  blessings  which  described  the  destiny 
of  the  peoples  that  have  sprung  from  them.  Ham  is  cursed  in 
the  person  of  his  son  Canaan,*  as  the  ancestor  of  the  race  most 
hostile  to  the  chosen  family,  with  the  doon!  of  servitude  to  his 
brethren,  and  especially  to  Shem.  The  inheritance  of  religious 
blessing  is  assigned  to  Shem  ;  and  to  Japheth  is  promised,  besides 
great  temporal  prosperity,  an  ultimate  share  in  the  privileges  of 
Shem.  In  this  blessing  we  can  clearly  see  the  general  outline  of 
the  later  history  of  the  Hebrew  family  and  the  European  nations. 

Ten  generations  are  enumerated  from  l^oali  to  Abraham,  in 
the  fifth  of  wliich  (the  time  oi  Peleg^  about  e.g.  2247,  Ussher), 
the  eartli  was  divided  among  its  several  nations.  This  division 
was  the  result,  not  of  quiet  diffusion,  but  of  a  violent  catastrophe, 
brought  on  by  the  increase  of  corniption,  which  took  the  form  of 
political  ambition.  A  difficulty  always  exists  in  the  arrangement 
of  events  where  genealogies  are  our  only  guide  ;  but  remember- 
ing that  steps  are  often  omitted  in  these  genealogies,  which  now 
become  more  ethnical  than  personal,  we  may  not  improbably 
connect  the  monarchy  established  at  Babel  by  Nimrod,  the  son 
of  Cush,  the  son  of  Ham,  with  the  attempt  to  build  the  city  and 
tower  of  the  same  name  in  the  Plain  of  Shinar.  There  is  at  all 
events  an  obvious  moral  connexion  in  these  enterprises.  As 
Ham's  outrage  upon  his  father  was  the  first  great  personal  offence 
against  patriarchal  authority,  so  Nimrod's  kingdom  was  the  first 
open  revolt  from  the  patriarchal  government ;  and  the  enterprise 
of  the  Babel  builders  was  an  organized  revolt  in  the  same  spirit, 
def^ying  even  the  power  of  God  himself. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  these  builders  were  of  the 
Cushite  branch  of  the  family  of  Ham,  and  that  the  Plain  of 
Shinar  was  the  great  level  of  Lower  Mesopotamia,  or  Chaklsea, 
and  the  site  of  the  city  that  spot  on  the  banks  of  the  Euphrates, 
wliich  has  ever  since  borne  the  name  of  Babel  or  Babylon.    Their 

*  This  special  mention  of  Canaan  is  a  decisive  proof  that  the  prophecy  has  nothing 
to  do  with  the  slavery  of  the  negro  races. 


B.C.  2247?]        THE   CITY  AND   TOWER  OF  BABEL.  31 

veiy  manner  of  building,  with  brick  and  bitumen,-  is  still  seen  in 
the  ruins  of  edifices  on  the  same  spot.  Dismissing  the  childish 
idea  that  they  meant  to  build  a  brick  tower  as  a  refuge  from  an 
inundation,  which  they  must  have  known  would  wash  it  away, 
we  see  in  their  city,  with  its  lofty  citadel,  the  first  attempt  to 
establish  a  great  universal  empire,  in  the  might  of  which  their 
impiety  aspired  to  resist  God  himself,  and  to  prevent  the  weak- 
ness which  their  dispersion  would  cause.f 

Of  the  religious  aspect  of  the  movement  we  are  told  no  more 
than  what  is  implied  in  the  impiety  of  the  design ;  but  there  is 
ground  for  tracing  in  it  a  positive  form  of  idolatry.  The  towers 
of  Chaldaea,  of  the  same  type  as  that  of  Babel,  seem  always  to 
have  been  temples  ;  and  their  peculiar  construction  was  adapted 
to  that  early  forai  of  idolatry  called  Sabseism,  or  the  worship  of 
the  heavenly  bodies.  The  earliest  traditions  represent  Nimrod 
as  an  idolater,  and  the  same  is  positively  afiirmed  in  Scripture  of 
the  forefathers  of  the  Israelites,  when  they  dwelt  in  Chaldsea. 
Perhaps  the  temple  was  the  first  part  of  the  design,  and  the  city 
grew  up  around  it. 

In  the  fate  of  this  project  we  see  the  sentence  which  God  has 
declared  in  every  age  against  every  attempt  at  universal  monarchy 
by  those  acts  of  providence  which  form  the  most  conspicuous 
events  in  history.  The  design  was  frustrated  by  a  confusion  of 
speech  among  the  builders,  produced  by  Divine  intervention, 
which  caused  them  no  longer  to  understand  each  other,  and  so 
forced  them  to  abandon  the  work  ;  and  hence  the  name  of  the  city, 
Babel  {confusion).  The  Chaldasans  themselves  appear  to  have 
found  the  etymology  of  the  name  in  their  own  language,  as  Bah^l^ 
tJie  gate  of  the  god  II  (Kronos  or  Saturn),  and  some  regard  the 
Hebrew  etymology  as  only  a  coincidence  ;  but  it  is  unsafe  to  use 
etymological  arguments  concerning  a  period  before  languages 
were  cast  into  their  later  types.  "We  are  not  informed  what  be- 
came of  the  tower.  Jewish  tradition  has  tried  to  make  up  for  the 
silence  of  Scripture  by  relating  its  miraculous  destruction  ;  whiie 
antiquarians  have  sought  for  its  remains  in  the  rained  towers  of 
Chaldsea,  both  near  to  and  far  from  its  proper  site.  The  Birs 
Nimroud^  which  stands  at  some  distance  from  the  right  bank  of 
the  Euj)hrates,  is  now  certainly  identified  with  the  Temple  of  Nebo 

*  This  is  the  most  probable  interpretation  of  the  word  translated  slime  in  our  ver- 
sion :  but  the  mud  of  the  alluvial  plain  was  also  used  for  cement. 

\  The  motive  thus  assigned,  and  their  movement  from  their  original  seats,  prove 
that  the  necessity  for  a  dispersion  was  already  obvious  even  to  themselves. 


82 


THE  POST-DILUVIAN  "WORLD.  [Chap.  IIL 


at  Borsippa  (proba1>ly  the  Chaldcean  Barsi]),  or  Tower  of  Tongues), 
which  the  Tahnudists  identified  with  the  Tower  of  Babeh  This 
temple  of  the  "  Seven  Lights  of  the  Earth  "  was  rebuilt  by  Nebu- 
chadnezzar, who  included  it  within  the  circuit  of  Babylon.  Tho 
dedicatory  inscription  of  that  king,  lately  discovered  among  the 
ruins,  contains  the  following  passage,  as  deciphered  by  Oppei-t :  *— 
"  A  former  king  built  it  (they  reckon  forty-two  ages),  but  he  did 
not  complete  its  head.  Since  a  remote  time,  people  had  aban- 
doned it,  without  order  expressing  their  words.  Since  that  time 
the  earthquake  and  the  thunder  had  dispersed  its  sun-dried  clay, 
the  bricks  of  the  casing  had  been  split,  and  the  earth  of  the  in- 
terior had  been  scattered  in  heaps."  This  is  a  proof  that  the 
story  is  no  mere  Hebrew  tradition.  The  simple  statement  of  the 
Bible,  that  they  left  off  huilding  the  city,  would  naturally  suggest 
a  break  between  the  original  and  the  later  Babylon,  during  which 
the  brick  buildings  would  have  fallen  into  ruin  through  neglect. 
At  all  events,  such  a  break  exists  between  the  earlier  and  later 
history  of  Babylon  in  our  own  knowledge. 

That  there  was  some  connexion  between  this  event  and  the 
diversities  of  human  language  and  the  dispersion  of  the  nations, 
is  clearly  stated  in  the  sacred  narrative  ;  but  this  is  not  assigned 
as  their  only  cause.  It  is  sufficient  confirmation  of  the  account, 
that  the  languages  of  the  earth  do  bear  traces  of  a  violent  disloca- 
tion, as  well  as  of  a  progressive  development ;  and  what  remains 
may  be  left  to  the  inquiries  of  Comparative  Philology  and  Eth- 
nography. 

*  See  Smith's  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  Vol.  iii.  pp.  1564-5. 


COMMON  ORIGIN  OF  MANKIND.  33 


CHAPTER  IV. 


THE  DIVISION  OF  NATIONS. 


"  God,  that  made  the  world  and  all  things  therein,  hath  made  of  one  blood  all  nations 
of  men  for  to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  hath  determined  the  times  before  ap- 
pointed, and  the  bounds  of  their  habitation." — St.  Paul,  in  Acts,  xvii.  24 — 26. 

"  We  know  what  modifies  form.  Change  of  latitude,  climate,  sea-level,  conditions  of 
subsistence,  conditions  of  clothing,  and  so  forth,  do  this;  all,  or  nearly  all,  such  changes 
being  physical.  We  know  too,  though  in  a  less  degree,  what  modifies  language.  Isew 
wants  gratified  by  objects  with  new  names,  new  ideas  requiring  new  terms,  increased  in- 
tercourse between  man  and  man,  tribe  and  tribe,  nation  and  nation,  island  and  island, 
oasis  and  oasis,  country  and  country,  do  this.  It  is  our  business  to  learn  from  history  what 
does  all  this." — Latham,  Comparative  Philology,  p.  70S. 


THE  COMMON  ORIGIX  OF  MANKIND  ATTESTED  BY  THE  POSITIVE  STATEMENT  OF  SCEIPTCRE — COL- 
LATERAL EVIDENCE  OF  SCIENCE,  ESPECIALLY  FROM  LANGUAGE — TRIPARTITE  ORIGIN  OF  THE 
NATIONS — GEOGRAPHICAL  SURVEY  OF  THE  LANDS  FIRST  PEOPLED — CENTRAL  POINT  IN  THE 
HIGHLANDS  OF  ARMENIA — THE  TRIPLE  CONTINENT  OF  EUROPE,  ASIA,  AND  AFRICA,  VIEWED 
IN  ITS  PHYSICAL  FORMATION — THE  NORTHERN  PLAIN,  THE  GREAT  DESERT  ZONE,  THE  MOUN- 
TAIN CHAINS,  AND  THE  SUBJACENT  COUNTRIES — BASIN  OF  THE  MEDITERRANEAN — OUTLYING 
PARTS  OF  THE  WORLD — DISTRIBUTION  OF  THE  SEVERAL  RACES  FROM  THE  ORIGINAL  CENTRE 
IN  ARMENIA — THE  MOSAIC  HISTORY  GIVES  ONLY  THE  COMMENCEMENT  OF  THE  PROCESS — 
FORM  OF  THE  RECORD  ETHNIC  RATHER  THAN  PERSONAL — THE  ARYAN  AND  SEMITIC  LANGUAGES 
AND  RACES— CONNECTION  OF  SHEMITE  AND  HAMITE  RACES — GEOGRAPHICAL  DISTRIBUTION  OF 
THE  THREE  FAMILIES — JAPHETH — HAM — SHEM — LANGUAGES  OF  THE  RESPECTIVE  RACES — 
MODERN  CLASSIFICATION  BY  RACES  OR  VARIETIES  OF  MANKIND — THE  CAUCASIAN — THE 
TURANIAN — THE  NIGRITIAN — THE  MALAY — THE  AMERICAN — MEANING  OF  "ABORIGINAL" 
TRIBES — CONCLUDING   REMARKS. 

In  the  age  before  the  Flood,  the  human  race  had  completed 
its  first  great  experiment.  It  had  failed  in  the  attempt  to  achieve 
the  end  of  its  creation  as  a  single  united  people.  The  time  was 
now  come  for  that  further  step  which  had  been  contemplated 
from  the  first  in  the  Divine  command — to  replenish  the  earth 
and  subdue  it.  The  process  by  which  this  was  effected  is  an  ob- 
ject of  enquiry  only  second  in  interest  to  the  origin  of  the  race  ; 
and  the  enquiry  must  be  pursued  in  accordance  with  the  principles 
we  have  laid  down.  The  Scriptural  account  must  be  regarded  not 
as  an  expression  of  the  crude  opinions  of  an  age,  though  early,  yet 
long  subsequent  to  the  division  of  mankind  into  races,  but  as  an 
historical  record,  derived  from  the  testimony  of  those  who  witnessed 
the  process.  This  testimony  is  independent  of  any  question  about 
inspiration  ;  but  when  an  inspired  teacher  like  St.  Paul  makes 
the  same  statements  with  a  directly  religious  object,  we  have  the 
highest  authority  for  accepting  the  unity  of  the  species  as  an 


U  THE  DIVISION  OF   THE  NATIONS.  [Chap.  IV. 

undoubted  fact  in  tlie  liistory  of  man.  That  the  magnificent 
Caucasian  and  the  debased  Hottentot,  the  noble  Red  Indian  and 
the  woolly  Negro,  should  have  sprang  from  the  same  stock,  may 
Beem  incredible  to  that  mere  external  view  whicli  is  no  safe  test 
of  trath.  Science  may  discuss  the  problem  unfettered  by  the 
autliority,  which  she  will  in  the  end  assuredly  confirm.  Histori- 
cal criticism  will  first  follow  direct  testimony,  but  not  without  in- 
terpreting that  testimony  by  the  light  of  science.  The  only  direct 
testimony  that  we  possess  is  the  record  in  the  tenth  chax-)ter  of  the 
Book  of  Genesis,  to  which  the  early  traditions  of  the  several  na- 
tions scarcely  add  anything  possessing  the  value  of  an  independ- 
ent authority.  The  further  aid  rendered  by  science  consists  in 
the  investigation  of  national  affinities  and  differences,  partly  by 
pl]ysical  characteristics,  but  chiefly  by  the  test  of  language.  The 
latter  field  of  enquiry  has  been  cultivated  in  our  own  day  with 
the  greatest  diligence  and  success  ;  and,  after  making  allowance 
for  certain  artificial  changes,  of  which  the  record  has  been  gener- 
ally jireserved,  Comparative  Grammar  has  been  established  as 
the  surest  guide  to  Comparative  Ethnology. 

Two  facts  stand  out  in  the  very  forefront  of  the  Scriptural  ac- 
count of  the  division  of  the  nations — that  all  were  derived  from 
the  common  stock  of  ISToah  in  three  great  divisions,  having  his 
three  sons  for  their  several  ancestors ;  and  that,  for  a  long  time 
after  the  Flood,  "  the  whole  earth  was  of  one  language  and  of  one 
speech."*  That  great  dislocation  of  this  one  speech,  of  which  the 
memory  was  preserved  in  the  name  of  Babel,  gave  a  decisive 
impulse  to  the  separation,  which  may,  nevertheless,  have  begun 
before  ;  and  its  time  is  fixed  to  the  age  of  Peleg,  in  the  fifth  gen- 
eration from  Noah  (b.c.  2247),  whose  very  name  (Peleg  =  divi- 
sion) commemorated  the  division.f 

The  tripartite  descent  of  all  the  nations  from  Sliem,  Ham,  and 
Japheth,  is  twice  plainly  stated :  "  These  are  the  three  sons  of 
Noah,  and  of  them  was  the  whole  earth  overspread, ":j:  "  These 
are  the  families  of  the  sons  of  Noah,  after  their  generations,  in 
their  nations  :  and  by  these  were  the  nations  divided  in  the  earth 
after  the  flood."§  Before  comparing  the  list  of  the  nations  de- 
scended from  them  with  our  later  knowledge  of  the  peoples  of 
the  earth,  it  is  necessary  to  take  a  general  survey  of  the  lands 
over  which  the  posterity  of  Noah's  sons  began  to  spread. 

The  highlands  of  Armenia — for  these,  in  the  geography  of 

•  Genesis,  xi.  1.  f  lb.  x.  25.  :j:  lb.  ix.  19.  §  lb.  x.  32. 


THE  GREAT  TRIPARTITE   CONTINENT.  35 

Scripture,  are  meant  by  the  mountains  of  Ararat,  on  which  the 
Ark  rested — form  at  once  the  most  natui-al  centre  for  the  distri- 
bution of  the  human  race,  and  the  most  convenient  station  from 
which  to  view  the  tripartite  continent  of  Europe,  Africa,  and  Asia. 
And  at  once,  in  thus  naming  it,  we  must  insist  on  a  more  natural 
division  than  that  into  three  continents,  which,  besides,  was  by  no 
means  uniformly  accepted  by  the  ancients.  The  highland  region 
of  Armenia  is  the  central  knot  of  the  mountain  system  which  forms 
the  skeleton  of  Western  Asia,  and  whose  chains  are  connected 
with  the  great  ranges  that  stretch  through  the  whole  length  of  Asia 
and  of  Europe.  North  of  these  ranges  a  vast  expanse  of  land  ex- 
tends with  a  genera]  slope  down  to  the  Arctic  Ocean,  intersected 
by  great  rivers  and  covered  with  forests,  swamps,  and  lakes.  It 
is  broken,  near  the  centre,  by  the  transverse  chain  of  the  Oural 
Mountains,  and  terminates  on  the  north-west  in  the  highlands  of 
Scandinavia.  With  this  portion  of  the  earth's  surface  history  has 
for  a  long  time  little  or  no  concern,  though  destined  to  be  vastly 
influenced  by  causes  there  at  work.  It  lies  apart,  the  rough  cra- 
dle of  those  hardy  races  which  were  prepared,  through  a  course 
of  ages,  to  pour  down  like  another  deluge  on  the  effete  civilization 
of  the  Old  World,  The  centre  and  southern  portions  of  the  triple 
continent  are  again  subdivided  by  marked  physical  characters. 
A  broad  belt  of  sandy  desert,  on  the  greater  part  of  which  rain 
never  falls,  begins  on  the  western  shore  of  Afiica,  below  the 
parallel  of  30°  N.  latitude,  and  sweeps  across  North  Africa, 
Arabia,  and  Pei-sia,  gradually  rising  up  to  the  table-land  of  Iran, 
beyond  which  it  again  spreads  out  into  tlie  vast  steppes  of  Tar- 
tary,  and  reaches  nearly  to  the  shores  of  the  Yellow  Sea.  Tlie  val- 
ley of  the  Nile,  the  basin  of  the  Red  Sea,  and  that  of  the  Tigris  and 
Euphrates  and  the  Persian  Gulf,  are  depressions  in  the  surface  of 
this  great  desert  belt,  which  is  also  broken  by  several  oases,  where 
springs  of  water,  and  sometimes  a  considerable  stream,  nourish 
valleys,  whose  scanty  verdure  seems  luxuriant  by  contrast  with 
the  wastes  around.  The  part  of  this  great  tract  which  lies  east  of 
the  Tigris  and  Euphrates  valley,  forming  the  table-land  of  Iran, 
is  bordered  on  the  north  and  south  by  mountain-chains,  which  run 
out  from  the  central  highlands  of  Armenia.  The  northern  range, 
skirting  the  southern  shore  of  the  Caspian,  is  prolonged  eastward 
to  the  Indian  Caucasus  (or  Hindoo  Koosh\  where  another  great 
knot  is  formed.  The  southern  range,  skirting  the  eastern  margin 
of  the  Tigris  valley  and  the  Persian  Gulf,  ceases  on  the  west  side 
of  the  Delta  of  the  Indus,  whence  the  transverse  chain  of  tho 


86  THE  DIVISION  OF  THE  NATIONS.  [Chap.  IV. 

Soliman  Mountains  runs  up  northwards  to  the  Hindoo  Koosh. 
>'roiii  this  new  central  knot  the  first  chain  is  continued  in  the 
Himalaya  and  its  branches,  at  the  feet  of  which  lie  the  two  great 
Indian  peninsulas  and  the  vast  land  of  China ;  while  another 
great  range,  which  may  be  included  under  the  general  name  of 
Altai,  stretches  north-east  to  the  very  extremity  of  the  continent, 
along  the  margin  of  the  steppes  of  Western  Tartary  and  of  the 
great  northern  Siberian  plain.  These  two  ranges  support  between 
them  the  great  plateau  of  Mongolia,  which  forms  the  north-east- 
ern part  of  the  great  desert  zone. 

The  course  of  the  mountain  chains  west  of  the  Armenian  high- 
lands affords  a  striking  example  of  the  influence  of  physical  geog- 
raphy on  national  character.  Two  ranges,  corresponding  to  the 
two  already  described  as  running  to  the  east,  extend  westward 
along  the  northern  and  southern  shores  of  Asia  Minor,  ending 
abruptly  in  the  western  headlands  of  that  peninsula.  Their  pro- 
longations are  lost  amidst  the  European  ranges  which,  sweeping 
to  the  north-west,  make  room  for  the  basin  of  the  Mediterranean, 
which  is  bounded  on  the  east  by  the  chains  of  Am  anus,  Lebanon, 
and  the  hills  that  prolong  them  to  the  south.  The  southern  shore 
of  the  MediteiTanean  is  enclosed  along  half  its  extent  by  the 
slopes  of  the  giant  Atlas,  which  forms  the  northern  boundary  of 
the  Great  Desert  (the  Sahara)  ;  and  along  the  eastern  half  the 
Desert  itself  reaches  to  the  sea-shore,  except  where  it  is  backed  up 
by  hills  whose  terraces  slope  down  to  the  Mediterranean  as  in  the 
fair  peninsula  of  Cyrene.  Thus  the  shores  of  this  beautiful  inland 
sea  are  formed  by  mountain  slopes  and  deeply-indented  penin- 
sulas, enjoying  the  most  delicious  climate,  and  affording  the 
greatest  facilities  for  navigation.  It  is  a  remarkable  feature  of 
the  northern  shores  of  the  MediteiTanean,  that  the  southern  faces 
of  the  great  mountain  chains  generally  fall  abruptly  to  the  sea  or 
the  intervening  plains,  while  on  the  north  they  descend  with  a 
long  and  gradual  slope.  Hence  the  lands  on  their  southern  side 
lie  within  a  small  compass,  open  to  the  great  highway  of  com- 
merce, and  sheltered  by  the  steep  mountain  walls  behind  them  : 
while  on  the  other  side  a  vast  unmanageable  mass  of  land,  ex- 
posed to  a  northern  climate,  presents  far  greater  obstacles  to  the 
progress  of  civilization.  The  same  is  true,  though  on  a  larger 
scale,  of  the  Himalayas  as  well  as  of  the  Alps.  In  fine,  the  gi-eat 
chain  of  Caucasus,  backing  up  the  Armenian  highlands  on  the 
north,  and  extending  westward  to  the  Crimea,  encloses,  with  the 
opposite  mountains  of  Asia  Minor  and  Thrace,  the  basin  of  the 


DIFFUSION  OF   THE  RACE   FROM  ARilENIA.  37 

Euxine,  from  whose  north-western  shores  the  steppes  of  Southern 
Russia  slope  up  to  the  great  Sarmatian  plain.  The  islands  which 
fringe  the  coast  of  this  great  tripartite  continent  need  not  be  de- 
scribed. The  part  of  Africa  south  of  the  Great  Desert  has  only 
the  remotest  connexion  with  ancient  history ;  and  the  New  "Worlds 
of  America  and  Oceanica  may  be  left  for  the  present  out  of  view. 
Our  plan  is,  first  to  obtain  a  general  idea  of  the  earliest  distribu- 
tion of  the  human  race  according  to  the  list  given  in  the  tenth 
chapter  of  Genesis,  aided  by  the  researches  of  Ethnology,  and 
then  to  suffer  the  several  nations,  except  those  with  which  the 
thread  of  the  history  remains,  to  sink  out  of  our  view,  till  they  re- 
appear on  the  stage  of  history  in  their  connexion  Avith  the  others. 
This  general  view  of  the  physical  geography  of  the  ancient 
world  may  prepare  us  to  see  the  fitness  of  the  Armenian  high- 
lands to  be  the  central  cradle  of  the  human  race.  Forminof  the 
highest  land  of  Western  Asia,  the  region  lies  between  the  Caspian, 
the  Euxine,  the  Mediterranean,  and  the  Persian  Gulf,  which  afi'ord 
access  to  all  quarters  of  the  ancient  world.  In  its  heart  are  the 
sources  of  the  Euphrates,  whose  course  forms  the  track,  fii-st  to 
Syria  and  the  Mediten-anean,  and  then  to  the  plains  of  Babylonia 
and  the  Persian  Gulf;  while  the  Tigris,  rising  on  the  southern 
slopes  of  its  mountains,  takes  a  more  direct  course  to  the  same 
point-  One  of  these  two  paths  may  have  been  followed  by  the 
first  great  raigi-ation  on  record,  that  of  the  Babel  builders,  when 
they  journeyed  eastward,  to  the  plain  of  Shinar  or  Babylonia. 
Tlie  valleys  of  the  chain  which  skirts  the  basin  of  the  Tigris  on 
the  east  formed  a  path  by  which  a  hardy  mountain  race  might 
spread  over  the  table-land  of  Iran,  and  thence  descend  into  the 
plains  of  Northern  India ;  and  in  these  regions  we  find  a  race 
which  assumed  not  imworthily,  the  name  of  nolle  (the  Aryans). 
From  the  Persian  Gulf  the  way  lies  open,  east  and  south,  to  all 
the  coasts  and  islands  of  the  great  Indian  Ocean  ;  while  the  coast 
of  Syria,  besides  giving  immediate  access  to  Egypt,  the  shores  of 
the  Red  Sea,  and  the  southern  margin  of  the  Mediterranean,  looked 
over  the  waters  of  that  easily  navigable  sea  to  all  the  lands  of 
Southern  Europe.  To  these  countries  there  was  another  access 
by  the  valleys  which  descend  from  Armenia  to  Asia  Minor,  along 
both  shores  of  that  peninsula,  and  by  the  islands  which  form 
stepping-stones  across  the  JEgean  into  Greece,  as  well  as  over  the 
narrow  streams  of  the  Bosporus  and  Hellespont  into  Thrace.  The 
shores  of  the  Euxine  might  be  reached  by  the  valleys  of  the  Cyrus 
and  the  Phasis,  whence  the  way  lay  open  round  the  foot  of  the 


88  THE  DIVISION  OF  THE  NATIONS.  [Chap.  IV. 

Caucasian  chain  into  tlio  Crimea  and  the  vast  plain  of  Northern 
Europe  ;  while  the  Cyrus  and  the  Araxes  also  led  to  the  Caspian 
across  and  around  which  was  the  route  to  Central  and  ISJ'orthern 
Asia.  Without  entering,  at  present,  into  the  question  of  the 
peopling  of  America,  w^e  need  only  notice  the  clear  physical  possi- 
Lilitv  of  a  passage  from  the  one  continent  to  the  other,  both  across 
13ehring's  Strait  and  along  the  chain  of  the  Aleutian  Isles.  Thus 
the  way  lay  open  on  every  side  ;  and  on  nearly  every  side  fertile 
plains,  watered  by  abounding  rivers,  invited  men  down  from  the 
mountain  valleys  into  a  milder  and  more  productive  climate. 

Though  the  descendants  of  Noah's  three  sons  spread  ultimately 
over  the  wide  regions  thus  described,  we  must  not  expect  to  find, 
in  the  Mosaic  account,  more  than  the  commencement  of  the  pro- 
cess. Its  true  historic  character  necessarily  confines  it  to  the  then 
known  parts  of  the  world  ;  though  inferences  may  be  fairly  drawn 
respecting  the  progress  of  population  over  regions  still  unknown. 
The  attempt  to  find  all  countries  of  the  ancient  world  in  the  list 
has  raised  needless  difficulties.  A  very  unfounded  suspicion  has 
also  been  thrown  upon  the  whole  account  on  tbe  ground  of  its 
fonn.  By  those  who  started  from  the  assumption  that  it  was 
intended  for  a  genealogy  of  personal  names,  the  discovery  that 
many  of  these  names  are  strictly  national  was  supposed  to  reduce 
it  to  a  mere  ethnical  speculation.  But  the  only  wonder  is  that  the 
ethnic  character  of  many  of  these  names  (such  as  those  ending  in 
im^  the  Hebrew  plural,  and  particularly  the  dual  Miz7'aim,  for  the 
two  Egypts,  Upper  and  Lower)  should  ever  have  been  overlooked.* 
Though  the  writer  starts  with  a  genealogy,  in  the  case  of  the  three 
sons  of  Noah,  the  wl;ole  scope  of  his  account  is  manifestly  ethnic, 
and  it  is  fruitless  to  enquire  where  the  one  form  ends  and  the 
other  begins.  In  determining  the  localities  to  w^hich  the  names 
should  be  referred,  we  have  in  some  cases  the  guidance  of  histori- 
cal geography,  and  in  others  a  very  striking  similarity  of  names  ; 
aided  by  a  general  notion,  derived  from  the  account  itself  and 
from  the  science  of  Ethnology,  as  to  what  parts  of  the  ancient 
world  were  peopled  by  the  three  races. 

The  most  certain  result  of  Comparative  Philology  is,  that  tke 
languages — and  therefore  the  nationsf — of  Europe  and   South- 

*  A  striking  case  occurs  in  verses  15 — 18,  where  the  one  form  passes  into  the 
other: — "And  Canaan  begat  Sidon  his  firstborn,  and  Heth,  and  the  Jcbusite,  and 
the  Amorite,  &c."  In  the  next  verse,  the  boundary  of  the  Canaanites  is  given,  from 
Sidon,  which  now  stands  for  the  city. 

t  It  may  be  necessary  here  to  guard  against  an  objection.  "  Blood  and  language, 
upon  a  whole,"  says  Dr.  Latham,  "  coincide  but  slightly.      The  Arab  blood  of  the 


AFFINITIES  OF  THE  THREE  FAMILIES.  39 

western  Asia  form  two  great  families,  of  whicli  the  one  is  named 
Indo-European,  Indo-Germanic,  Aryan  or  Japhetic,  and  the  other 
Semitic*  The  range  of  the  former  may  be  described  by  a  zone, 
extending  S.E.  and  K.W,  from  the  plain  of  Northern  India  across 
the  table-land  of  Iran,  the  highlands  of  Armenia,  and  at  least  a 
part  of  Asia  Minor,  into  Europe,  of  whicl;  it  covers  nearly  the 
whole  surface.  There  is  little  difficulty  in  referring  to  parts  of 
this  region  the  races  named  in  Genesis  as  the  posterity  of  Japheth. 
This  zone  leaves  on  its  western  margin,  for  the  most  part  well- 
defined  by  dividing  mountains,  the  countries  which  form  the  south- 
western corner  of  Asia — namely,  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates  val- 
ley, Syria  with  the  adjacent  part  of  Asia  Minor,  and  the  peninsula 
of  Arabia.  This  region,  which  is  the  seat  of  the  Semitic  languages, 
as  determined  by  Comparative  Grammar,  contains  the  countries 
which  we  know,  from  the  whole  tenor  of  Scripture  history,  to 
have  been  peopled  chiefly  by  the  race  of  Shem. 

The  third  race  offers  more  difficulty.  Comparative  Grammar 
has  not  yet  established  a  distinct  Hamitic  family  of  languages  ;  but 
it  has  proved  the  difficulty  of  referring  the  dialects  of  Egypt  and 
some  neighbouring  countries  to  either  of  the  other  families.  But 
the  history  most  indubitably  connects  Ham  with  Egypt,  his  son 
Canaan  with  the  adjacent  district  of  Palestine,  and  others  of  his 
descendants  with  Africa  on  the  west,  and  Arabia,  on  the  east,  of 
Egypt.  One  main  source  of  difficulty,  perhaps,  arises  from  a  sacri' 
fice  of  truth  to  symmetry,  in  the  too  eager  search  for  a  definite  tri- 
partite division  of  the  nations.  There  seems  to  have  been  a  much 
closer  connexion  (we  do  not  say,  affinity)  between  the  races  of 
Shem  and  Ham,  than  between  them  and  the  race  of  Japheth.  This 
is  already  intimated  in  IS'oah's  prophetic  blessing.  While  Japheth, 
who  seems  to  have  been  the  elder  son,  stands  apart,  "  enlarged  " 
with  his  vast  temporal  inheritance,  Shem,  the  heir  of  the  sj)iritual 
promise,  is  placed  in  direct  antagonism  with  Ham,  whom  he  is  to 
reduce  to  subjection.  Accordingly  we  find  a  perpetual  conflict 
between  the  two  races,  and  a  perpetual  intnision  of  the  one  into 

millions  who  speak  Arabic  [in  Africa]  is  at  a  minimum  ; "  and  he  mentions  slavery  aa 
a  great  cause  of  the  intermixture  of  languages.  This  must  be  carefully  borne  in  mind 
in  all  speculations  on  ethnic  affinities  based  on  the  existing  forms  of  language.  But 
when  we  are  able  to  ascend  to  the  original  speech  of  a  people,  we  may  safely 
infer  their  race  from  their  language.  In  our  own  islands,  for  example,  the  use  of 
English  by  the  Cornish,  Welsh,  Scotch  Highlanders,  and  Irish,  does  not  tempt  us  to 
refer  them  to  the  Teutonic  race;  but  our  knowledge  that  their  native  dialects  are 
Cambrian  and  Gaelic  leads  us  rightly  to  class  them  with  the  Celtic  race. 

*  This  form  of  the  word,  though  originating  in  a  difficulty  with  the  sh,  has  been  so 
naturalized  by  use,  that  the  more  proper  Shemitic  seems  uncouth. 


40  THE  DIVISION  OF  THE  NATIONS.  [Chap.  IV. 

the  seats  of  the  other.  The  very  Land  of  Promise,  divinely  given 
to  tlie  chosen  descendants  of  Shem,  was  first  possessed  by  the  race 
of  Canaan,  the  son  of  Ilain.  The  two  races  came  into  conflict  on 
the  Arabian  shore  of  tlie  Persian  Gulf,  and  in  the  plains  of  Baby- 
lonia, where  Nimrod,  the  son  of  the  Ilamite  Cush,  set  up  his  throne 
in  a  country  which  afterwards  belonged  to  the  Semitic  race  ;  and 
hence  arose  the  double  applicatioli  of  the  name  Cnsh  to  Baby- 
lonia, as  well  as  to  Ethiopia  above  Egypt,  to  which  it  properly 
refers.  More  than  this :  according  to  the  Hebrew  method  of 
stating  geographical  facts  in  a  genealogical  form,  names  that  are 
purely  local  are  inserted  as  if  they  had  an  ethnical  meaning. 
Thus  in  Arabia,  where  certain  districts  were  occupied  at  one  time  by 
a  Semitic  race,  at  another  by  an  Ilamitic,  the  very  same  names  ap- 
pear in  both  genealogies,  indicating  the  intrusion  of  the  one  family 
into  the  possessions  of  the  other ;  the  Cushite  races  of  Sheba  and 
Ilavilah  appear  as  descendants  of  the  Shemite  Joktan  in  Arabia. 
The  general  conclusion  is,  that  we  must  not  expect  to  find  the 
same- marked  distinction  between  the  races  and  languages  of  Shem 
and  Ham,  as  between  them  and  the  race  of  Japheth.  We  may 
probably  view  the  ancient  Egyptians  as  nearest  to  the  pure  type 
of  a  Hamite  race.  That  this  type  is  to  be  found  in  the  negro  is 
a  prejudice  as  unfounded  as  the  attempt  to  wrest  Noah's  prophe- 
cy of  the  subjection  of  the  Canaanites  to  Israel  into  an  argument 
for  negro  slavery. 

Confining  our  attention  within  the  probable  limits  of  the 
knowledge  of  the  time  when  the  list  was  composed,  the  settle- 
ments of  the  three  sons  of  Noah  may  be  roughly  described  as 
forming  three  parallel  zones  ; — Japheth,  stretching  from  the  high- 
lands of  Armenia,  to  the  south-east,  into  the  table-land  of  Iran, 
and  to  the  west  into  Thrace  and  the  Grecian  peninsula  and  islands  ; 
Shem,  occupying  the  middle  belt,  from  the  south-eastern  part  of 
Asia  Minor*  to  the  Persian  Gulf,  and  most,  if  not  all,  of  the  pen- 
insula of  Arabia  ;  and  Ham,  Egypt  and  Ethiopia,  with  the  adja- 
cent parts  of  Africa,  as  well  as  Palestine  and  the  country  round 
the  head  of  the  Red  Sea. 

The  names  of  the  tribes  belonging  to  each  of  the  three  races 
are  the  following : — 

I.  The  sons  of  Japheth. 

1.  GoMER ;  and  his  sons  Ashkenaz,  Riphath,  and  Togarmah. 
These  are  supposed  to  belong  to  the  primeval  seats  of  the  race,  in 

*  The  Semitic  Jind  Aryan  races  were  much  mingled  in  this  peninsula.     In  a  very 
general  sense,  the  River  Ilalys  may  be  named  as  a  boundary  between  them. 


THE  JAPHETIC  RACES.  41 

the  highlands  of  Armenia,  and  the  centre  of  Asia  Minor.  To- 
garmah  appears  to  be  identified  in  Scripture  with  Armenia.  As 
these  are  probably  the  races  which  ultimately  spread  north-west- 
ward over  Europe,  we  cannot  tell  how  far  we  have  to  look  for 
them  among  existing  nations ;  and  a  wide  range  is  left  open  to 
speculation.  The  name  of  Gorticr  resembles  that  of  the  great  Cim- 
merian or  Cimric  race,  which  is  found  both  on  the  shores  of  the 
Euxine,  where  the  Crimea  still  preserves  its  name,  and  in  the  ex- 
treme west  of  Europe.  In  Ash-kenaz  some  of  the  best  authorities 
find  the  name  of  Asia,  which  was  at  first  localized  on  the  shores 
of  the  Euxine  and  in  Asia  Minor.*  The  extension  of  the  name 
to  the  whole  continent  has  no  ethnical  meaning ;  but  the  race, 
spreading  to  the  north-west,  is  regarded  by  the  authorities  just 
referred  to  as  the  original  of  the  Teutonic  nations.  Hiphath  has 
not  been  satisfactorily  explained  ;  Josephus  says  that  the  Paphla- 
gonians  were  called  of  old  Rhiphseans. 

Magog  is  a  name  which  occurs  again  in  Scripture,  with  that  of 
Gog,  from  some  great  and  wild  tribe,  who  fought  on  horseback 
with  the  bow,  and  came  from  a  country  adjacent  to  Togarmah, 
that  is,  Armenia  (Ezekiel  xxxviii.  xxxix.).  Ezekiel's  description, 
as  well  as  some  ancient  traditions  preserved  by  the  Arabians,  point 
to  the  tribes  north  of  the  Caucasus,  who  were  included  by  the 
Greeks  under  the  general  name  of  Scythians.  But  here  great  diffi- 
culties arise,  partly  from  the  very  wide  and  indefinite  range  given 
by  the  classical  writers  to  this  name  of  Scythians,  and  partly  from 
the  movements  of  the  tribes  which  have  at  various  times  displaced 
one  another  over  the  northern  parts  of  Europe  and  Asia.  Thus  the 
name  has  come  to  denote  two  very  distinct  races ;  the  one  Japhetic, 
the  other  belonging  to  that  great  Turanian  family  of  which  we 
have  still  to  speak.  The  former  seem  to  be  the  Magog  of  Scripture, 
as  they  certainly  are  the  Scythians  of  Herodotus  and  the  other  ear- 
lier Greek  writers.  They  are  the  family  whose  chief  branch,  set- 
tled in  the  east  and  south-east  of  Europe,  along  the  northern  sides 
of  the  Black  Sea,  the  Caucasus,  and  the  Caspian,  obtained  the  name 
oi Sarmatians  from  one  of  their  lesser  tribes,  when  that  oi Scythians 
was  transferred  to>  the  Turanian  races  of  Northern  and  North-east- 
ern Asia.  Upon  the  whole,  however,  where  ethnical  afllnities  are  so 
obscure,  it  may  be  safer  to  regard  the  name  as  merely  geographical, 
which  is  certainly  the  case  with  some  others  in  the  list.  According 
to  a  probable  etymology,  Ma-gog  signifies  the  People  of  Gog^  Gog 
being  the  prophetic  name  of  a  supposed  prince  of  these  tribes. 

*  See  the  article  Asia  in  Smith's  Dictionary  of  Greek  and  Roman  Geography. 


42  THE  DIVISION  OF  THE  NATIONS.  [Chap.  IV. 

3.  Madai  almost  certainly  represents  the  Medes,  whom  ethni- 
cal science  has  proved  to  be  a  branch  of  the  Indo-European  race. 

4.  Javan,  with  his  sons  Elishah,  Tarshish,  Kittim,  and  Doda- 
nim,  peo])led  tlie  "  Isles  of  the  Gentiles,"  a  term  which  always 
seems  to  signify,  in  Scriptural  geography,  the  western  shores  of 
Asia  Minor  and  the  countries  on  the  European  coasts  of  the  Medi- 
terranean. The  name  of  Javan,  stripped  of  the  vowel  points,  is 
the  same  as  the  Greek  ION,  and  Milton  adopts  the  identificatioD 
wlien  he  speaks  of 

"  The  Ionian  gods  of  JavarCs  issue." 

Nay,  the  very  name  of  Japheth  himself  appears  in  the  Titan  deity 
lapetus,  whose  son  Prometheus, 

^' Japheth'' s  wiser  son," 

is,  in  the  oldest  Greek  mythology,  the  benefactor  and  preserver, 
nay,  even  the  creator  of  the  human  race.  Tlie  identification  of  £Jli- 
shah  with  the  JEolians,  and  of  Dodanim  with  the  Dardanians  of 
Asia  Minor  (a  people  undoubtedly  akin  to  the  Greeks),  and  the 
placing  of  the  Kittim  in  the  island  of  Cyprus,  are  questions  too 
minute  to  be  more  than  barely  mentioned.  But  the  name  of  Tar- 
shish is  of  wider  interest.  It  often  occurs  in  Scripture  as  that  of  a 
distant  land,  the  commerce  with  w^hich  gave  a  name  to  the  largest 
class  of  merchant  vessels,  like  our  "  Indiamen  ;  "  and  it  is  gener- 
ally believed  to  denote  either  the  lands  in  the  western  part  of  the 
Mediterranean  in  general,  or  in  particular  Spain,  where  the  great 
maritime  city  of  Tartessus  was  famous  in  the  earliest  times.  It 
may,  however,  be  doubted  whether  so  distant  a  region  would  be 
within  the  writer's  knowledge. 

5.  Tubal  has  been  placed  in  Pontus,  on  account  of  the  resem- 
blance of  the  name  to  the  Tibareni. 

6.  Meshech  has  been  identified,  for  a  similar  reason,  with  the 
Moschi  in  Pontus. 

7.  TiRAs  seems  to  represent  the  great  nation  of  the  Thracians. 
In  looking  at  the  subject  from  the  historical  point  of  view,  in 

the  light  of  the  earliest  authentic  documents,  we  cannot  enter  on 
the  wider  field  of  scientific  enquiry  into  the  origin  and  affinities  of 
the  ancient  and  existing  nations  of  the  world.  But  it  may  be  well 
to  indicate  the  results  obtained  by  the  modern  science  of  Compara- 
tive Philology.  The  nations,  ancient  and  modern,  comprised  in  the 
great  zone  which  has  already  been  mentioned  as  extending  from 
Northern  India  on  the  south-east  to  the  western  shores  of  Europe,  are 
classified,  according  to  their  languages,  in  the  following  order  : — 


THE   ARYAN  LANGUAGES. 


43 


GENEALOGICAL   TABLE   OF   THE   ARYAN  FAMILY   OF  LANGUAGES.* 
Classes.  Branches.  Dead  Languages.  Living  Languages. 

T      „  \  Prakrit  and   Pali,   Modern  )  Dialects  of  India 

I      and  Vedic  Sanskrit J       "  the  G 

fParsi,  Pehlevi,  Zend " 


Ibanic 


Old  Armenian. 


Celtic  , 


Cymric . 


Cornish . 


Gadhelic 


Italic  . 


Oscan. . 

Umbrian .  •  V  Langue  d'oc . 

Latin )  Langue  d'oil . 


Illyric  . 


Hellenic Dialects  of  Greek. 


"WlNDIC. 


Lettic <  Old  Prussian 


South-east 
Slavonic. 


Ecclesiastical  Slavonic 


Teutonic. 


West  Slavonic. 


High  German. 


Low  German . . .  ^ 


Old  Bohemian 

Polabian 

j  Old  High  German  and 
(  Middle  High  German .... 
fGothic 

Anglo-Saxon 

Old  Dutch 

Old  Friesian 

Old  Saxon 


Old  Norse. 


^  Scandinavian 
*  From  Max  Midler :  Lectures  on  the  Science  of  Language,  p.  380 


the  Gipsies. 

Persia. 

Afghanistan, 

Kurdistan. 

Bokhara. 

Armenia. 

Ossethi. 

Wales. 

Brittany. 
+ 

Scotland. 

Ireland. 

Isle  of  Man 

Portugal. 

Spain. 

Provence. 

France. 

Italy. 

Wallachia. 

the  Grisons. 

Albania. 

Greece. 

Lithuania. 
+ 

Friesland  anJ 
Livonia 
(Lettish). 

Bulgaria. 

Russia. 

lUyria. 

Poland. 

Bohemia. 

Lusatia. 

German  V. 


England. 

Holland. 

Friesland. 

North  Ger- 
many (Piatt 
Deutsch). 

Denmark. 

Sweden. 

Norway. 

Iceland. 


44  THE  DIVISION  OF  THE  NATIONS.  [Chap.  IV. 

That  this  table  should  include  the  dialects  of  races  whose  names 
are  not  seen  in  the  Mosaic  list,  is  quite  consistent  with  the  limits 
within  which  tlie  list  is  confined.  Representing  the  original 
diffusion  of  the  families  of  mankind,  it  does  not  follow  them  into 
their  later  ramifications.  One  case  demands  more  special  notice, 
that  of  the  language  which  stands  first,  both  in  the  table  and  in 
the  name  Indo-European,  and  to  which  precedence  has  been 
generally  given  by  modern  scholars — the  Indie.  Neither  this  nor 
the  chief  dialects  of  the  Iranic  appear  in  the  Mosaic  list,  just  be- 
cause they  lay  beyond  its  range ;  and  perhaps,  too,  because  of  the 
well-known  fact  that  the  Aryan  race  in  Northern  India  displaced 
an  earlier  Hamite  or  Turanian  population.  But  there  has  been 
too  great  a  tendency  to  regard  the  Indie  as  the  prototype,  and 
even  the  parent  of  the  whole  family  ;  and  hence  some  have  even 
supposed  that  we  must  look  for  the  cradle  of  the  human  race,  not 
in  the  liighlands  of  Armenia,  but  in  those  of  the  Hindoo  Koosh. 
This  precedence  in  antiquity,  however,  is  more  than  can  be  justly 
claimed  for  the  Indie  dialects  ;  and,  in  fact,  the  original  centre  of 
the  race  cannot  be  determined  by  such  reasoning.  "  There  is," 
says  Dr.  Latham,  "  a  tacit  assumption  that,  as  the  East  is  the 
probable  quarter  in  which  either  the  human  species  or  the  greatci 
part  of  our  civilization  originated,  everything  came  from  it.  But 
surely  in  this  tJiere  is  a  confusion  between  the  primary  diffusion  of 
mankind  over  the  world  at  large,  and  those  secondary  movements 
by  which,  according  even  to  the  ordinary  hypothesis,  the  Lithuan- 
ic  came  from  Asia  into  Europe  ?  A  mile  is  a  mile,  and  a  league  a 
league,  from  whichever  end  it  is  measured,  and  it  is  no  further  from 
the  Danube  to  the  Indus,  than  from  the  Indus  to  the  Danube :  "  * 
and  we  may  add,  it  is  only  half  as  far  from  Armenia  to  either. 

IL  TuK  Race  of  Ham  formed  four  great  families,  which  can  be 
identified  pretty  certainly  with  known  races,  though  the  minutes 
subdivisions  involve  considerable  difficulties.  They  all  belong  to 
the  dark-coloured  variety  of  mankind  ;  and  the  very  name  of  Ham 
has  such  a  signification,  being  akin  to  the  word  by  which  the 
Egyptians  described  the  black  soil  of  their  own  country.f 

1.  Cusn  seems  to  be  a  generic  term  for  the  dark  tribes  of  Africa, 
like  the  Greek  name  Ethiopian  ;  but  his  numerous  progeny  extend 
also  into  Asia.   The  name  of  his  eldest  son,  Seba,  is  identical  with 

*  Lttham,  Comparative  Philology,  p.  612.  The  passage  is  part  of  an  argument 
which  we  cannot,  of  course,  discuss  here — that  Sanskrit,  which  is  closely  allied  to  the 
Slavonian  dialects,  is  rather  of  European  than  of  Asiatic  origin. 

f  See  Book  ii.,  chapter  vL 


THE  CUSHITE  RACE.  45 

the  most  ancient  name  of  the  great  island  (as  it  was  called)  formed 
between  the  two  branches  of  the  Nile,  the  Astaboras  and  Astapiis, 
and  famous  as  the  seat  of  the  Ethiopian  kingdom  of  Meroe.  The 
following  names  of  Havilah,  Sabtah,  Raamah  (with  his  sons  She- 
ba  and  Dedan),  and  Sabtechah,  certainly  belong  in  part  to  the 
peninsula  of  Arabia.  Then  follows  one  of  the  most  interesting 
records  of  primeval  history ;  how  Nimrod,  a  descendant  of  Cush, 
began  to  be  a  mighty  one  in  the  earth,  and  was  distinguished  in 
early  traditions  as  "  the  mighty  hunter  "  (the  phrase  "  before 
Jehovah  "  is  a  Hebrew  pleonasm  of  intensity).  There  is  little 
doubt  that  this  epithet  describes  the  forays  which  the  first  great 
conqueror  named  in  history  made  upon  the  surrounding  nations. 
He  is  expressly  declared  to  have  founded  a  kingdom,  the  seat  of 
which  is  accurately  defined.  Its  beginning  was  at  Babel  and  the 
neighbouring  cities  of  Erech,  Accad,  and  Calneli,  in  the  land  of 
Shinar ;  that  is,  the  great  plain  of  Babylonia,  or,  to  speak  more 
widely,  Southern  Mesopotamia.  Thence  he  is  supposed  by  some 
to  have  extended  his  empire  northward  along  the  valley  of  the 
Tigris  into  the  land  of  Asshur  (Assyriia),  where  he  built  the  cities 
of  Nineveh,  Rehoboth,  Calah,  and  Resen.*  It  is,  of  course,  quite 
indiflerent  whether  these  were  the  exploits  of  an  individual,  or,  as 
seems  more  probable,  of  the  dynasty  he  founded.  The  great  fact 
established  is  this,  that  the  earliest  empire  in  the  world  was  set  up 
by  a  Cushite  dynasty  in  the  great  plain  of  Babylonia.  Traditions 
of  the  most  ancient  times,  and  the  recently  discovered  records  of 
the  oldest  Babylonian  language,  point  to  an  original  Cushite  pop- 
ulation in  those  regions,  where  the  appellation  of  the  race  was  long 
preserved  in  such  names  as  Chuthah,  Cossaii,  Chuzistan  or  Susi- 
ana.  For  the  Cushites  peopled  not  only  the  plains  of  Mesopota- 
mia, but  the  highlands  of  Susiana  and  Persia  Proper ;  and  we  may 
follow  the  footsteps  of  the  race  still  further  to  the  east,  across  the 
deserts  of  Beloochistan  and  the  Mekran,  at  the  head  of  the  Indian 
Ocean,  to  the  peninsula  of  India ;  where,  besides  the  evidence  of 
language,  their  presence  is  shown  by  their  characteristic  temijle- 
towers  or  pagodas.  In  these  countries  they  were  mingled  with 
the  Aryan  race.     Thus  we  see  the  Cushite  race  extending  from 

*  That  is,  according  to  the  reading  of  Genesis  x.  11,  now  generally  preferred; 
"  out  of  that  land  he  went  into  Assyria" — but  it  is  not  certain  that  the  authorized 
translation  is  not  right; — "out  of  that  land  went  forth  Asshur"  (driven  out  by  a 
Cushite  invader),  "  and  built  Nineveh,  Rohoboth,  Calah,  and  Resen,"  a  Semitic  tetra- 
polis  in  Northern  Mesopotamia,  in  contrast  to  the  Cushite  tetrapolis  in  the  South, 
This  Cushite  kingdom  is  mixed  up  by  historians  with  the  early  history  of  Assyria." 
See  Book  ii.,  chapter  ix. 


46  THE  DIVISION  OF  THE  NATIONS.  [Chap.  IV. 

above  Egypt,  across  the  south  and  east  of  Arabia,  the  plain  of 
Babylonia  or  Chaldiea,  and  as  far  as  India,  in  a  sort  of  crescent : 
but  the  question  still  remains,  what  was  the  course  of  their  mi- 
gration ?  Did  they  ascend  the  Nile  to  their  primitive  seats  in 
Nubia  and  Abyssinia,  and  then  spread  to  the  north-east,  displa- 
cing an  earlier  Shcmitc  population  in  Arabia  and  on  the  Tigris  ? 
Or  did  they  first  descend  the  valley  of  the  Euphrates,  and  spread 
thence  to  the  south-west  ?  Or  did  they  follow  both  courses  ?  This 
question  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  in  the  whole  science  of  Eth- 
nology. The  results  of  modern  research  point,  as  we  shall  see 
hereafter,  to  the  entrance  of  the  Cushites  into  Chaldsea  by  way 
of  the  Persian  Gulf;  and  this  is  supposed  to  be  in  accordance 
with  the  order  in  the  Book  of  Genesis,  which  derives  Nimrod 
from  Gush,  and  not  Gush  from  Nimrod.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  narrative  of  the  building  of  Babel  appears  rather  to  suggest 
that  the  Cushite  peopling  of  Babylonia  was  effected  by  the  more 
direct  route,  and  that  it  was  connected  with  the  migration  of  the 
Babel  builders.  It  would  seem  that  the  race  of  Ham,  like  the 
Gainites  before  the  Flood,  having  cast  off  the  patriarchal  law, 
were  the  first  to  indulge  their  restless  desire  of  wide  dominion. 

2.  MizRAiM,  the  name  of  Ham's  second  son,  has  a  uniform 
geographical  significance  in  Scripture.  Even  its  dual  form  has 
its  proper  force,  denoting  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt.  The  singular, 
Mazor,  seems  to  have  the  same  significance  as  Ham,  and  Egypt  is 
expressly  called  in  Scripture  "  the  land  of  Ham  "  (Psalm  Ixxviii. 
51 ;  cv.  23  ;  cvi.  22) ; — strong  arguments  for  the  opinion  that 
Egypt,  though  named  second  in  geographical  order,  was  the  chief 
seat  of  the  Hamite  race.  Its  extent  along  the  valley  of  the  Nile  is 
defined  by  the  unchanged  physical  limit  of  the  first  cataract ;  and 
the  distinct  characteristics  of  the  ancient  Egyptians  are  inscribed 
indelibly  on  their  monuments.  But  they  w^ere  surrounded  by  kin- 
dred tribes — Ludim,  Anamim,  Lehabim,  Naphtuhim,  Pathrusim, 
Gasluhim  (the  progenitors  of  the  Philistim),  and  Gaphtorim.  It 
seems  that  all  these,  as  we  know  for  certain  of  the  Philistines, 
were  colonies  sent  forth  by  the  primitive  race  of  Mizraim  ;  and 
that  they  are  enumerated  in  a  geographical  order,  from  west  to 
east.  The  Ludim  (or  Lud)  are  mentioned  in  several  passages  of 
Scripture  as  serving  in  the  armies  of  Egypt :  but  a  difficulty  arises 
from  the  twofold  use  of  the  name  ;  for  besides  the  Mizraite  Lud  or 
Ludim,  there  was  a  Shemite  Lud,  probably  the  Lydians.  Of  the 
Anamim  we  have  no  certain  knowledge  ;  but  the  Lehabim  (else- 
where called  Lubim)  seem  to  be  without  doubt  the  Rebu  of  the 


THE  HAMITIC   NATIONS.  47 

Egyptian  monuments,  and  the  Libyans  of  the  Greeks,  in  the  nar- 
rower sense.  Their  ancient  dependence  on  the  Egyptians  is 
stated  by  Manetho  as  an  historical  fact.  The  Xaphtuhim  dwelt 
close  to  Egypt  en  the  west.  The  Pathrusim,  Casluhim,  and 
Caphtorim  were  probably  settled  in  the  Delta  itself.  The  paren- 
thesis, which  describes  the  origin  of  the  Philistines,  seems  to  be 
misplaced,  for  this  people  are  elsewhere  uniformly  described  as  an 
offshoot  of  the  Caphtorim.  They  were  the  only  one  of  the  Miz- 
raite  colonies  which  extended  into  Asia,  and  their  affinity  with 
the  Egyptians  should  be  remembered  in  studying  Jewish  history. 
The  Caphtorim  were  not  improbably  an  old  race,  closely  akin  to 
the  Cushites,  who  dwelt  in  Egypt  before  its  final  settlement  by  its 
historical  inhabitants.  Their  name  seems  to  be  connected  with 
that  of  Coptos,  and  to  contain  the  old  root  which  is  preserved  in 
the  modern  name  of  the  Egyptian  people  and  language,  and  in 
the  Greek  appellation  of  the  country  (Ae-gyptus  =  the  land  of 
Copt).  Retiring  to  the  Delta,  the  Caphtorim  seem  to  have  sent 
forth  colonies,  not  only  to  the  adjacent  maritime  plain  of  Philis- 
tia,  but  across  the  Mediterranean  to  the  south-west  shores  of  Asia 
Minor  and  the  adjacent  islands.  The  old  Leleges  and  Carians,  as 
well  as  the  Cretans,  had  a  close  affinity  with  the  Philistines,  es- 
pecially if  tlie  last  two  of  these  three  peoples  be  rightly  identified 
with  the  Tok-Karu  and  the  Khairetana  (the  Hebrew  Cherethim), 
who  appear  on  the  Egyptian  monuments  as  allies  of  the  Philis- 
tines. They  are  evidently  a  race  cognate  to  the  Egyptians,  but 
distinguished  from  them  by  some  marked  peculiarities. 

3.  Phut,  the  third  son  of  Ham,  is  also  often  mentioned  in  the 
prophetic  Scriptures  as  allied  with  the  Egyptians.  The  name 
corresponds  with  that  of  a  nomad  people,  Petu  (bowmen)^  which 
occurs  on  the  monuments.  It  seems  probable  that  they  were  the 
Nubians,  and  this  would  account  for  their  being  mentioned  next 
after  Misraim,  as  Nubia  was  always  a  dependency  of  Egypt. 

4.  Canaan  is  the  last-named  of  the  sons  of  Ham,  but  the  best 
known  to  the  Hebrew  author,  who  not  only  gives  a  full  list  of  the 
Canaanite  tribes,  but  an  exact  description  of  their  territories,  from 
the  borders  of  Egypt  and  the  plain  of  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  on 
the  south,  to  the  city  of  Sidon  and  the  land  of  Hamatli  (the  valley 
of  the  Orontes)  on  the  north  ;  thus  including  the  whole  of  the 
Holy  Land  and  some  of  the  adjacent  parts  of  Phoenicia  and  Syria, 
which  were  afterwards  peopled  by  the  race  of  Shem. 

The  illustration  of  this  family  by  Comparative  Philology  is  an 
enquiry  as  yet  in  its  infancy  ;  all  that  can  at  present  be  said  with 


48  THE  DIVISION  OF  THE  NATIONS.  [Chap.  IV 

safety  is  that  some  progress  lias  been  made  towards  the  recognition 
of  a  distinct  class  of  Ilamitic  languages.  The  tendency  of  modern 
research  is  to  show  tliat,  as  on  the  one  hand  the  race  of  Ham  led 
the  way  in  material  civilization,  and  consquently  in  the  changes 
of  language  which  it  calls  for,  and  as  on  the  other  hand  their  civ- 
ilization took  more  and  more  a  Semitic  form  of  development,  so 
their  languaires  will  be  found  to  constitute  an  intermediate  link 
between  the  primitive  undeveloped  Turanian  and  the  Semitic. 
Some  philologcrs  even  go  so  far  as  to  doubt  whether  the  Semitic 
family  of  languages  should  not  rather  be  called  Ilamitic.  But,  in 
truth,  little  success  can  be  expected  in  the  attempt  to  classify  lan- 
guages according  to  the  three  races,  since  the  chief  modifying 
causes,  which  have  moulded  languages  into  their  existing  forms, 
are  long  subsecpent  to  the  original  partition  of  mankind.  The 
ancient  language  of  Egypt,  and  the  Coptic  derived  from  it,  have 
perhaps  the  best  claim  to  represent  the  Hamitic  family  ;  but  it  is 
now  clear  that  both  the  people  of  Egypt,  and  their  language,  con- 
tained a  large  infusion  of  the  Nigritian  element. 

The  characteristics  of  the  race  may  perhaps  be  best  seen  in  the 
traditions  and  monuments  of  their  civilization.  Their  great  work 
was  to  make  material  nature  subserve  their  power  and  pomp,  to 
found  great  empires,  and  to  resist  the  inroads  of  nomad  races. 
They  reared  those  massive  works  of  grand  and  sombre  architec- 
ture, which  still  excite  our  admiration  in  Egypt,  Babylonia,  and 
Southern  Arabia,  as  well  as  in  the  little  we  know  of  the  earliest 
monuments  of  Phoenicia.  Indeed,  the  principle  recently  pro- 
pounded by  Mr.  Fergusson,  though  often  partially  recognized 
before,*  of  using  prevailing  styles  of  architecture  as  a  test  of 
race,  may  be  safely  applied,  if  in  any  case,  to  the  family  of  Ham. 
Yiewed  in  this  light,  the  wondrous  legends  of  the  old  Arabian 
kings  who,  in  their  marvelloTis  palaces,  dared  to  defy  the  Divine 
power,  till  sudden  destruction  fell  upon  them  from  heaven,  may 
be  traditions  not  entirely  imaginary.  In  every  land  this  material 
grandeur  yielded  partially,  and  in  most  altogether,  before  the  spi- 
ritual power  and  the  active  energy  of  the  sons  of  Shem  and  Ja- 
pheth.  The  material  civilization  of  the  world  was  hegun  by  the  race 
of  Ham,  ennobled  and  put  to  the  highest  uses  by  the  race  of  Shem, 
and,  if  the  phrase  may  be  aWowedi,  poj)ulai'ized  and  made  the  hand- 
maid of  energetic  progress  by  the  race  of  Japheth,  to  whom  Noah's 
prophecy  gave  the  highest  development  of  worldly  greatness. 

*  Aa  in  the  comparisons  frequently  made  between  the  temples  of  India  and  Egypt. 


THE  SEJ^nTIC  NATIONS.  49 

III.  The  Sons  of  Shem  are  named  last  in  the  list,  probably  as 
being  the  chosen  race,  with  whom  the  main  stream  of  the  sacred 
history  abides.  They  occupied  a  comparative  small  territory,  shut 
in  between  the  wide  possessions  of  Japhetti  on  the  north,  and  those 
of  Ham  on  the  south.  This  fact  seems  to  suggest,  from  the  very- 
first,  that  their  destiny  was  not  so  much  to  overspread  the  earth, 
as  to  exhibit,  on  their  allotted  portion  of  it,  the  dealings  of  divine 
Providence  with  one  part  of  mankind  as  a  pattern  of  the  rest. 
Two  stages  are  clearly  marked,  in  the  ethnic  genealogy,  by  the 
description  of  Shem  as  "  the  father  of  all  the  children  of  Eber  :  " 
the  latter,  as  the  head  of  the  most  important  subdivision  of  the  race, 
is  thus  only  second  in  importance  to  Shem,  the  ancestor  of  the 
whole.  As  in  the  Hamite  races,  so  here  there  seems  to  be  a  geo- 
graphical order  in  the  enumeration,  which  proceeds  from  south- 
east to  north-west  along  the  highlands  which  extend  from  the  head 
of  the  Persian  Gulf  through  Armenia  into  Asia  Minor.  xVram  is 
mentioned  last,  as  lying  south  of  the  curved  line  thus  formed. 

1.  Elam,  a  name  preserved  in  that  of  the  Elymsei,  belongs  to 
the  mountains  which  separate  the  table-land  of  Iran  from  the  Per- 
sian Gulf  and  the  lower  part  of  the  Tigris  valley,  including  also 
a  portion  of  these  lowlands.  It  corresponds  in  general  to  the 
Susiana  of  later  geographers.  This  people,  at  the  extremity  of 
the  Semitic  chain,  came  into  contact  on  the  east  with  the  Japhet- 
ic Persians,  with  whom  they  are  sometimes  confounded,  while 
on  the  other  side  they  were  pressed  upon  by  the  Cushite  invaders. 
The  result  was  their  ultimate  reduction  to  a  mountain  tribe,  com- 
paratively insignificant  in  numbers,  but  famed  as  archers  both  in 
secular  and  sacred  history  .  The  early  importance  of  their  coun- 
try is  attested  by  the  title  of  "  Iving  of  Elam  "  given  to  the  great 
Cushite  sovereign,  Chedorlaomer. 

2.  AssHUR,  the  great  Assyrian  nation,  had  its  abode  in  the 
upper  valleys  of  the  Tigris ;  where  having  been  for  a  time  sub- 
dued by  the  Chaldtean  monarchy  of  Nimrod,  it  became  the  seat 
of  the  first  great  Semitic  monarchy  after  that  of  Solomon. 

3.  Arpuaxad  is  the  name  both  of  a  person  and  of  a  race.  As 
the  eldest  son  of  Shem  (born  two  years  after  the  flood),  we  should 
naturally  expect  to  find  his  progeny  near  the  primeval  home  of 
the  race ;  and  there  are  good  reasons  for  placing  them  in  the 
southern  part  of  the  Armenian  highlands,  about  the  sources  of  the 
Tigris.  One  intervening  step  of  the  genealogy,  Salah,  leads  from 
Arphaxad  to  Eber,  the  common  ancestor  of  the  Hebrews  and  the 
Semitic  Arabs,  who  were  descended  respectively  from  his  two 

Vol.  I.— 4 


60  THE  DIVISION  OP  THE  NATIONS.  [Chap.  IV. 

sons,  Peleg  and  Joktan.  The  significance  of  tlie  name  Eber  seems 
to  point  to  a  home  "  on  the  other  side  "  of  the  Euphrates  ;  and  this 
agrees  both  with  the  position  of  Chaldaea,  the  native  country  of 
Abraham,  and  the  statement  of  Joshua  to  the  Israelites,  that  their 
fathers  liad  dwelt  in  the  days  of  their  idolatry,  "  beyond  the  flood," 
that  is,  the  waters  of  the  Euphrates.  While  the  personal  genealogy 
of  the  chosen  race  is  traced  down  from  Peleg,  through  Keu,  Serug, 
and  Kahor,  to  Terah  the  father  of  Abram,  Joktan  is  described  as 
the  father  of  the  numerous  Arabian  tribes,  whose  dwellings  are 
defined  as  extending  "  from  Mesha,  as  thou  goest  unto  Sephar,  a 
mount  of  the  east."  The  latter  is  almost  certainly  the  modern 
Zafari,  a  port  in  the  east  of  Yemen,  and  formerly  a  great  seat  of 
the  Indian  and  African  trade.  Hence  their  settlements  were  in 
the  south  of  the  peninsula,  where  the  traces  of  their  power  are 
found  in  history.  Their  chief  tribe  was  that  of  Sheba  (the  Sabae- 
ans  of  classical  geography),  who  very  early  established  a  great 
monarchy  in  the  south-west  corner  of  the  peninsula.  The  domin- 
ion passed  from  them  to  the  Ilimyarites  (the  Homeritse  of  the 
Greeks),  who  are  not  mentioned  in  the  Mosaic  list.  They  seem 
to  have  been,  in  fact,  the  chief  subdivision  of  the  Sabsean  tribe. 
Their  still  extant  inscriptions  attest  the  close  connection  between 
the  Semitic  population  and  that  Cushite  element  which  spread,  as 
we  have  already  seen,  over  these  regions,  and  which  has  left  here, 
as  in  the  valleys  of  the  Tigris  and  the  Nile,  the  traces  of  its  pres- 
ence and  power  in  its  giant  monuments.  But  the  limitation  of 
the  Joktanite  Arabs  to  the  south  of  the  peninsula  seems  to  describe 
only  their  later  possessions.  At  a  very  early  period  they  extend- 
ed into  the  great  Syrian  Desert,  as  far  north  as  Damascus.  Here 
they  afterwards  encountered  two  other  great  waves  of  Semitic 
population,  which  passed  over  the  north  and  centre  of  the  land  ; 
the  descendants  of  Abraham,  through  his  son  Ishmael,  and  by  his 
wife  Keturah.  This  most  interesting  mixture  of  populations 
which  still  requires  and  will  reward  investigation,  is  attested  by 
the  occurrence  of  the  same  names  in  the  Biblical  genealogies  of 
Cush,  Joktan,  Ishmael,  and  Keturah. 

4.  LrD  is  most  probably  identified  with  the  great  Lydian  na- 
tion of  Asia  Minor.  The  intermixture  of  peoples  in  that  penin- 
sula presents  one  of  the  most  curious  and  intricate  problems  of 
ancient  ethnology.  It  seems  to  have  been  occupied  by  the  three 
races,  in  three  nearly  parallel  belts  ;  the  Japhethites  along  the 
north,  the  Shemites  in  the  south-east,  centre,  and  west,  and  the 
Hamites  in  the  south-west. 


AKAM^ANS,  HEBREWS,   AND   PHCENICIANS.  51 

5.  Akam,  from  a  root  signifying  high^  was  the  general  name 
of  the  people  of  the  highlands  that  enclosed  on  the  north  the 
plains  and  lower  hills  of  Canaan,  and  the  table-land  of  the  Syrian 
Desert.  It  corresponds  roughly  to  the  northern  parts  of  Syria, 
Mesopotamia,*  and  Assyria.  The  language  of  this  wide-spread 
people  has  always  been  divided  into  two  distinctly  marked  dia- 
lects, the  Eastern  and  Western  Aramaean.  The  former,  improp- 
erly called  Chaldee,  was  in  use  at  Babylon  at  the  time  of  the 
Jewish  captivity  ;  the  latter  is  represented  by  the  Syriac,  which 
was  the  vernacular  language  of  Syria  till  the  Arab  conquest. 
The  latter  is  near  akin  to  the  Hebrew,  which  contains  also  a  large 
admixture  of  pure  Aramaic  forms. 

The  children  assigned  to  Aram  are,  Uz,  Hul,  Gether,  and 
Mash.  The  first  name,  as  well  as  Aram  itself,  recurs  among  the 
descendants  of  Xahor,  the  brother  of  Abraham,  whose  home  was 
at  Padan-Aram.  Hence  we  can  have  little  hesitation  in  placing 
Uz,  the  land  of  Job,  in  the  country  of  Mesopotamia. 

The  most  important  branch  of  the  Semitic  race,  the  people  of 
Israel,  does  not  appear  in  this  list,  as  they  had  not  at  first  a  dis- 
tinct national  existence.  The  land  destined  to  become  the  scene 
of  the  wonders  of  their  history  was  peopled  by  the  race  of  Ham, 
while  their  ancestor  Abram  did  not  separate  from  the  posterity 
of  Eber  till  after  five  generations. 

There  is  another  important  branch  of  the  Semitic  race,  which 
does  not  appear  in  the  Mosaic  list.  These  are  the  Phoenicians, 
who  inhabited  the  narrow  slip  of  the  eastern  coast  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean, between  Syria  and  Palestine,  at  the  foot  of  the  chain  of 
the  Lebanon.  They  seem  to  have  migrated  from  Chaldaea  about 
the  time  of  the  call  of  Abraham  ;  and  both  these  movements  of 
the  Semitic  race  up  the  valley  of  the  Euphrates  to  the  shores  of 
the  Mediterranean  may  have  been  influenced  by  a  common  im- 
pulse.-j-  That  the  settlers  found  a  Hamite  population  already  in 
the  country,  may  be  inferred  from  the  statement  that  Sidon  was 
tbe  first-bom  of  Canaan,:}:  as  well  as  from  the  Hamitic  character 
of  the  earliest  Phoenician  monuments.  From  Piioenicia,  the  Se- 
mitic race  was  spread  by  colonization  to  Carthage  and  other 
places  on  the  Mediterranean  shores  of  North  Africa  and  Spain. 

When  these  settlements  in  the  land  of  Canaan  had  been  efiect- 

*  This  was  the  Aram-Naharaim,  that  is,  Aravi  between  the  rivers,  of  Scripture. 
Padan-Aram,  the  cultivated  Aram,  was  another  name  of  the  same  district, 
f  See  RaAvlinson's  Herodotus,  vol.  iv.,  Essay  11. 
X  Genesis  x.  15. 


68  THE  DIVISION    OF  THE  NATIONS.  [Chap.  FV. 

ed,  the  Semitic  race  acquired  that  form,  which  its  peculiar  fixity 
of  cliaracter  and  habits  preserved  for  long  ages  ;  which  was  only 
altered,  indeed,  by  the  force  of  foreign  conquest.  Tliis  character 
offers  peculiar  facilities  to  the  researches  of  the  ethnologist,  the 
results  of  which  are  embodied  by  Professor  Max  Miiller  in  the 
following 

GENEALOGICAL  TABLE   OF  THE   SEMITIC  FAIIILY   OF   LANGUAGES.* 

Classes.  Dead  Languages.  Living  Languages. 

Dialects  of  Arabic. 

Etbiopic Amharic. 

Himyaritic  Inscriptions + 

!  Biblical  Hebrew \  Dialects  of  the  Jews. 
Samaritan  Pentateuch,  3rd  century  a.  d >  + 

Carthaginian,  Phoenician  Inscriptions /^  + 

(  Chaldee,  Masora,  Talmud,  Targum,  Biblical  Chaldee  \  4- 

Northern  "i  ^3'"''*'^>  Peshito,  2nd  century  a.  d J-  Neo-Syriac. 

(  Cuneiform  Inscriptions  of  Babylon  and  Nineveh. . .  )  + 

The  Scriptural  account  is  naturally  silent  about  the  colonies 
which  were  established  on  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  by 
the  maritime  energy  of  the  Phoenicians,  and  by  means  of  which 
the  Semitic  and  Japhetic  races  were  brought  into  conflict  for  the 
empire  of  the  world,  in  the  Punic  Wars.  ISTor  should  we  omit  to 
notice  that,  anterior  to  these  colonies,  there  are  traces  of  a  Se- 
mitic population  along  the  northern  coast  of  Africa,  which  is  still 
probably  represented  by  the  Berbers,  a  people  quite  distinct  from 
the  later  Arab  conquerors. 

Such  are,  in  brief  outline,  the  general  results  of  an  examination 
of  the  "  Book  of  the  Generations  of  the  Sons  of  Noah  "  in  the  light 
of  ethnical  science.  But  when  that  science  extends  its  enquiries 
to  the  whole  surface  of  the  globe,  it  gives  us  other  results,  which 
are  certainly  not  directly  deducible  from  the  historical  account, 
though  there  is  no  reason  to  regard  them  as  inconsistent  with  it. 

The  double  test  of  physical  and  linguistic  distinctions  divides 
the  human  race  into  five  varieties. 

1.  The  Caucasian  is  so  called  because  its  finest  physical  type 
is  still  found  in  the  region  of  Mount  Caucasus,  near  the  original 
seat  of  the  human  race.  It  includes  all  the  nations  that  speak  the 
Indo-Germanic  languages,  as  well  as  most  of  the  tribes  of  the 
great  Indian  peninsula,  the  Semitic  peoples  of  Western  Asia,  and 
the  inhabitants  of  Northern  Africa.     Its  physical  charactei-s  are 

*  Lectures  on  the  Scic7ice  of  Language,  p.  S81. 


CAUCASIAN  AND  NON-CAUCASIAN  RACES.  53 

a  tall  stature,  symmetry  and  strength  of  body,  a  free  and  noble 
bearing,  and  especially  the  erect  countenance  and  fully  developed 
brain  and  forehead,  which  are  the  marks  of  high  intellect.  Its 
history  has  always  fulfilled  the  destiny  which  nature  has  mani- 
festly stamped  upon  it,  as  the  ruling  family  of  mankind,  supreme 
in  power,  and  foremost  in  civilization.  It  embraces,  with  a  few 
very  doubtful  exceptions,  all  the  nations  that  are  described  in  the 
above  list  as  the  earliest  progeny  of  the  three  sons  of  Noah. 

But  the  inference  by  no  means  follows,  that  no  room  is  left 
for  other  races,  consistently  with  a  common  descent  from  Noah. 
The  remoter  parts  of  the  earth,  not  comprised  in  the  Mosaic  list, 
may  have  been  peopled  by  races  sprung  from  the  same  original 
stock,  but  yet  so  modified  by  climate  and  other  influences,  as  to 
bear  strong  marks  of  difierence.  Naturalists,  for  the  most  part, 
admit  that  such  modifications  are  agreeable  to  the  laws  of  physi- 
cal science.  That  they  have  actually  taken  place  is  the  more 
probable  from  the  fact,  that  all  the  departures  from  the  Caucasian 
type  show  signs  of  degeneracy.  In  other  classes  of  organic  life, 
each  species  is  more  or  less  perfect  in  its  kind  ;  but  all  the  other 
varieties  of  mankind  are  less  perfect  than  the  Caucasian.  Nor  is 
it  hopeless  to  expect  that  more  accurate  observation,  especially 
in  the  field  of  language,  may  enable  us  to  detect,  in  the  peculiar 
characteristics  of  the  non-Caucasian  races,  the  exaggeration  of  those 
of  the  three  great  families.  Thus,  for  example,  the  researches 
which  have  made  us  better  acquainted  with  the  Hamite  nations, 
have  also  detected  among  them  a  strong  Turanian  element,  which 
may  have  arisen  from  a  common  primeval  origin,  as  well  as  from 
a  later  intermixture.  We  are,  in  fact,  little  beyond  the  threshold 
of  such  investigations.  Meanwhile,  the  Mosaic  account  of  the 
origin  of  the  nations,  instead  of  being  contradicted  by  varieties 
of  race,  is  much  more  confinned  by  the  fact,  that  these  varieties 
are  found  in  regions  remote  from  those  in  which  the  first  families 
of  mankind  are  placed  by  the  historian,  while  these  latter  bear 
undoubted  marks  of  a  common  origin. 

It  remains  to  mention  the  non-Caucasian  varieties,  though  it 
is  long  before  history  has  much  to  do  with  them.  Two  of  these 
varieties  are'found  in  the  ancient  world,  lying  beyond  the  range 
of  the  great  zone  which  contains  the  civilized  and  historic  races, 
the  Nigritian  on  the  one  side,  and  the  Turanian  on  the  other. 

2.  We  name  the  Nigritian  or  Negro  race  first,  because  we 
have  least  to  say  of  it.  Its  physical  characters  are  very  distinctly 
marked  ;  the  small  stature  united  with  great  strength,  but  alto- 


64  THE  DIVISION  OF  THE  NATIONS,  [Chap.  IV. 

gether  wanting  in  symmetry,  the  black  colour,  woolly  hair,  long 
receding  forehead,  and  prominent  jaws.  It  includes,  in  general, 
the  tribes  of  Central  and  Southern  Africa.*  They  bear  every 
mark  of  a  race  greatly  modified  by  the  influence  of  climate,  and 
degraded  by  the  oppressions  of  the  more  civilized  races  from  time 
immemorial.  In  their  turn  they  have  had  an  influence  on  these 
powerful  neighbours,  and  thus  a  decided  I^igritian  element  has 
been  traced  in  ancient  Egypt.  The  affinities  of  their  dialects 
form  too  large  and  difficult  a  question  to  be  discussed  here. 

3.  Tlie  Turanian  \  (called  by  earlier  writers  the  Mongolian) 
is  tlic  race  most  closely  connected  with  the  Caucasian  in  ancient 
history.  Its  extreme  physical  type  is  strongly  marked  by  flat  broad 
features,  a  low  forehead,  and  generally  a  small  stature ;  but  its 
higher  forms  approach  more  nearly  to  the  Caucasian.  It  is  found 
spread  over  the  vast  tracts  of  Central  and  Eastern  Asia,  as  well  as 
the  great  northern  plain  which  slopes  down  to  the  shores  of  the 
Arctic  Ocean,  not  only  in  Asia  and  Europe,  but  also  in  America. 
It  includes  the  ancient  Huns  and  Scythians,  the  Mongolian,  Cal- 
muck,  or  Tatar  tribes,  the  Samoyedes  of  Siberia,  the  Ugrians, 
Fins,  and  Laps  of  Europe,  and  the  Esquimaux  of  America.  Be- 
sides these  peoples,  who,  shut  in  between  mountains,  steppes,  and 
an  Arctic  sea,  lead  the  life  of  nomad  herdsmen  and  hunters,  other 
branches  of  the  same  race,  placed  under  more  favorable  conditions 
on  the  vast  fertile  plains  and  extensive  sea-board  of  China  and 
Farther  India,  reached  a  much  more  advanced  stage  of  civilization. 

The  languages  of  these  tribes  are  considered  as  forming  the  third 
great  family,  the  Turanian^  which  comprises  all  the  languages 
spoken  in  Asia  or  Europe,  not  included  under  the  Aryan  and  Se- 
mitic families,  with  the  exception  of  Chinese  and  its  cognate  dia- 
lects.:}: These  last  are  assigned  to  a  still  earlier  stage,  the  first  in 
the  formation  of  language,  in  which  roots  form  independent  words, 
and  grammatical  inflections  are  unknown.  The  Turanian  dialects 
belong  to  that  second  stage,  in  which,  two  roots  being  joined  to- 
gether to  form  words,  one  of  them  loses  its  independence  and  be- 
comes subsidiary  to  the  other.  This  first  step  towards  the  use  of 
merely  grammatical  inflexions,  such  as  are  seen  in  the  Aryan  and 
Semitic  families,  has  been  well  described  by  the  name  "  agglutina- 

*  In  the  extreme  south,  the  Caffres  are  evidently  a  Caucasian  race,  who  have  over- 
powered the  Nigritian  tribes. 

f  The  name  is  derived  from  the  great  table  laud  of  Turan  in  Central  Asia,  which  ia 
divided  from  that  of  Iran  by  the  Hindoo  Koosh  and  its  western  extension. 

\  Max  Miiller,  Lectures  on  the  Science  of  Language,  p.  275. 


TURANIAN  RACES  AND  LANGUAGES.  55 

tion,"  or  gluing  together.  This  term  signifies  that  form  or  stage  of 
language,  in  which  the  additions  that  make  declensions  and  conju- 
gations are  tacked  on  to  the  words  they  modify,  so  as  to  be  still 
separable,  instead  of  being  incorporated  with  them  as  inflections. 
"We  happen  to  have  an  English  example  of  agglutination  in  the 
comparatively  modern  barbarism  "  John  his  book."  This  structure 
characterizes  an  early  stage  in  the  development  of  language ;  a 
stage  through  which  each  family  of  languages  has  passed,  but 
which  has  become  stereotyped  among  the  races  now  called  Tura- 
nian. It  is  thus  that,  as  in  the  physical  world,  where  processes 
have  been  arrested  at  a  certain  stage,  as  if  to  preserve  them  for 
our  study,  so  the  progress  of  civilization  has  halted  among  nations 
the  less  favoured  in  the  means  of  progress  ;  and  in  them  we  may 
see  former  conditions  of  races  now  far  more  advanced.  Thus  the 
Turanian  is  distinctively  the  class  of  languages  spoken  by  the  no- 
mad tribes  of  Asia  and  Northern  Europe,  as  distinguished  from 
the  more  settled  Aryan  and  Semitic  populations.  But  we  must 
be  very  careful  to  infer  no  more  than  the  premisses  will  warrant. 
We  must  not,  for  example,  conclude  from  the  early  prevalence  of 
Turanian  forms  of  speech  a  state  of  civilization  exactly  parallel  to 
that  of  the  existing  Turanian  races.  Especially  is  this  caution 
needed  when  we  find  the  traces  of  a  Turanian  population  in  those 
parts  of  Western  Asia — Chaldaea  for  example — which  were  the 
earliest  seats  of  civilization.  In  short,  this  Turanian  occupation 
seems  to  mark  a  period  when  the  great  demarcations  between  lan- 
guages and  races  were  not  yet  established.  Whether  the  Turanian 
race  was  nearer  to  the  Hamitic  or  to  the  Semitic  family,  is  one  of 
the  most  difficult  problems  of  Ethnology.  The  most  probable 
opinion  seems  to  be  that  the  Turanian  was  the  stage  of  speech 
which  the  difi'erent  races  carried  with  them  when  they  first  left 
their  primeval  seats  ;  that  it  was  developed  by  the  race  of  Ham, 
who,  as  the  earliest  cultivators  of  science  and  art,  would  be  the 
first  to  require  new  forms  of  language,  into  the  stage  seen  in  the 
Hamitic  dialects  of  Africa  and  Southern  Asia ;  and  that  these 
were  again  modified,  by  contact  with  Semitic  races,  into  the  forms 
of  speech  called  Semitic.  The  Aryan  languages  seem  to  have 
passed  out  of  the  Turanian  stage  by  a  still  more  direct  process. 

Professor  Max  Midler  gives  a  genealogical  table  of  the  Turanian 
languages,  too  detailed  to  be  transferred  to  our  pages.  He  divides 
the  Turanian  family  into  two  great  classes,  the  Northern  and  the 
Southern.  The  Northern,  which  is  sometimes  called  the  Ural- 
Altaic  or  Ugro-Tatarie,  is  divided  into  five  sections,  the  Tungusic, 


56 


THE  DIVISION  OF  THE  NATIONS.  [Chap.  IV. 


Mongolic,  TurUc,  Flmiie,  and  Samoyedic.  The  Southern,  which 
occupies  tlie  south  of  Asia,  is  divided  into  four  sections :  tlie 
TamuliG,  or  hmguages  of  the  Delchan  ;  tlie  BJwtiya,  or  dialects 
of  Tibet  and  the  Bhotan  ;  the  Taic,  or  dialects  of  Siani ;  and  the 
Mala'ic,  or  Malay  and  Polynesian  dialects. 

4.  From  this  classification  it  would  follow — at  least  so  far  as 
race  may  he  inferred  from  language— that  the  fourth  variety  of 
mankind,  usually  called  the  Malay,  or  Polynesian,  was  a  branch 
of  the  Turanian,  which  passed  over  from  the  two  great  Indian  pen- 
insulas. Its  other  name,  Australasian,  may  be  taken  not  only  in 
a  local,  but  also  in  an  etymological  sense,  denoting  the  origin  of 
the  race  from  Southern  Asia.  In  confirmation  of  this  view,  we 
know  that  the  primitive  Hamite  race  extended  as  far  as  India, 
where  it  was  overpowered  by  the  irruption  of  the  Aryans  ;  and  the 
pressure  of  nation  upon  nation,  which  always  results  from  such 
movements,  would  naturally  find  an  outlet  by  the  Malay  peninsula 
and  the  islands  of  the  Eastern  Archipelago,  whence  the  race  might 
spread,  by  means  of  their  light  canoes,  over  the  calm  waters  of  the 
Pacific,  Moreover,  the  physical  characters  of  the  Malay  race  are 
very  similar  to  those  of  the  Hamite  populations  of  Southern  Asia, 
as  they  are  seen  on  the  monuments  of  Chaldsea,  and  described  by 
Herodotus  under  the  name  of  the  "  Asiatic  Ethiopians."  They 
have  the  complexion  of  various  shades  of  darkness, — black  hair, 
generally  straight,  but  inclining  in  some  tribes  to  the  crisp  curl 
which  distinguished  the  Cushites  of  Africa, — with  regular  fea- 
tures, resembling  the  Caucasian  type.  There  is,  on  the  other 
hand,  a  striking  contrast  between  the  energy  and  invention  of  the 
Hamite  race  in  Asia  and  the  sensual  life  of  the  Polynesian  savages, 
in  which  indolence  and  cruelty  are  strangely  mingled.  Their 
soft  liquid  dialects,  scarcely  possessing  the  more  vigorous  ele- 
ments of  speech,  afibrd  no  bad  t}"pe  of  their  prevailing  character, 
as  a  race  which  has  degenerated,  from  causes  not  far  to  seek. 
Shut  out  from  the  great  movements  of  their  fellow  men,  in  beau- 
tiful islands,  where  a  tropical  climate  and  spontaneous  Vegetation 
leave  no  care  for  food  and  clothing,  they  show  what  man  becomes 
when  really  placed  in  the  "  Islands  of  the  Blessed." 

But  one  type  is  not  suflicient  to  describe  the  Malay  tribes. 
They  vary  from  the  highest  standard  of  the  manly  savage  in  i!^ew 
Zealand  to  the  lowest  degradation  in  Australia,  Papua,  and  else- 
where ;  and  in  most  of  the  islands  the  distinction  between  the 
chieftains  and  the  common  people  is  as  marked  as  that  imagined 
by  Homer  between  the  "  Jove-born  kings  "  and  the  vulgar  herd. 


CONCLUDING  REMARKS.  57 

These  circumstances  seem  to  point  to  a  mixed  descent,  partly  from 
the  Caucasian,  and  partly  from  the  Negro  race. 

5.  The  American  race  is  a  name  given  in  common  to  the  war 
like  hunting  tribes  who  peopled  the  forests  and  prairies  of  North 
America,  the  more  civilized  people  who  founded  cities  and  king- 
doms in  the  Centre,  and  the  savages  of  the  South  ;  though  the 
unity  of  all  these  requires  iurther  proof.  The  chief  existing  type 
is  to  be  seen  in  the  so-called  Indians  of  North  America.  Their 
main  distinction  is  a  copper-coloured  complexion,  with  thin  lank 
liair.  Their  physical  perfection,  noble  carriage,  and  manly  cour- 
age, point  to  a  Caucasian  origin,  while  in  language  and  manners 
they  have  many  points  of  resemblance  to  the  Turanians  ;  so  that 
a  mixture  of  these  two  races  appears  to  supply  the  most  probable 
account  of  their  origin. 

The  ancient  Greeks  held  that  the  first  inhabitants  of  every 
land  were  sprung  from  the  soil ;  and  the  nobles  of  Athens  wore 
golden  grasshoppers  in  token  that  they  boasted  to  be  Autoch- 
thons. The  Latin  races  expressed  the  same  belief  by  the  word 
Aborigines,  which  modern  usage  has  adopted.  But  it  is  scarcely 
necessary  to  say,  that  by  an  aboriginal  people  we  now  mean  sim- 
ply the  earliest  known  inhabitants  of  their  country. 

In  concluding  this  chapter,  we  must  emphatically  repeat, 
that  the  enquiry  of  which  it  treats  is  as  yet  only  in  its  infancy  ; 
but  we  seem  at  length  to  have  reached  a  stage  in  which  the  in- 
trinsic difficulties  of  the  subject  need  no  longer  be  enhanced  by  a 
wilful  conflict  between  science  and  authority.  In  what  remains 
to  be  done,  no  caution  perhaps  is  more  necessary  than  to  bear  in 
mind  that  the  diffusion  of  our  race  cannot  be  accounted  for  by 
any  single  movement  from  its  common  centre.  We  must  take 
into  account,  not  only  the  successive  impulses  which  have  fol- 
lowed one  another  at  long  intervals,  but  the  flux  and  reflux  of 
the  great  tides  of  population.  Every  such  wave  has  left  behind 
it  traces  as  marked  as  those  of  the  waters  which  have  covered  the 
lands  during  the  great  geological  periods.  But  their  traces  are 
the  nations,  languages,  monuments,  and  customs  of  living  men, 
whose  vital  action  has  worked  changes  much  more  difficult  to 
classify  than  the  strata  of  dead  matter.  All  that  has  been  done, 
however,  has  tended  to  confirm  that  great  primeval  document, 
"  Tlie  Book  of  the  Generations  of  the  Sons  of  Noah." 


08  HISTORY  OF  THE  WORLD. 


CHAPTER  V. 


EARLY  HISTORY  OF  THE  HEBREW  RACE— FROM  THE  CALL  OF 
ABRAHAM  TO  THE  EXODUS,  B.C.  1921-1491. 


'  Thus  will  this  latter,  as  the  former  world, 
Still  tend  fiom  bad  to  worse ;  till  God  at  last, 
Wearied  with  their  iniquities,  withdraw 
His  presence  from  among  them,  and  avert 
His  holy  eyes ;  resolving  from  henceforth 
To  leave  them  to  their  own  polluted  ways ; 
And  one  peculiar  nation  to  select 
From  all  the  rest,  of  whom  to  be  invoked— 
A  nation  from  one  faithful  man  to  spring." — Milton. 


THE  HEBREWS  NOT  THE  MOST  ANCIENT  NATION — REASON  FOR  THEIR  PRECEDENCE — THE  LINE  OP 
SHEM  TO  ABRAHAM — tTR  OF  THE  CHALDEES,  ITS  PROBABLE  SITE — CALL  OF  ABRAHAM  AND 
MIGRATION   OF  TERAh's  FAMILY — FIRST  SETTLEMENT  AT  CHARRAN — ABRAm's  JOURNEY  INTO 

canaan  to  the  valley  of  shechem — removal  to  egypt  and  return  to  bethel — sepa- 
ration from  lot — the  cities  op  the  plain — expedition  of  chedorlaomer — the  tribes 
of  the  canaanites — abram  at  hebron — his  subsequent  history — birth  and  marriage 
op  isaac — death  of  sarah — birth  of  esau  and  jacob — destruction  of  sodom  and 
gomorrha — origin  of  the  nations  of  moab  and  ammon,  the  ishmaelite  and  ketu- 

ea'ite  arabs — life  of  isaac — esau  and  jacob — the  edomites jacob  in  padan-aham 

his  return  to  canaan — affairs  at  shechem — journey  to  the  south — removal  into 
egypt — the  captivity — close  of  the  patriarchal  age — the  exodus — an  epoch  in  the 
world's  history. 

Out  of  all  the  nations  that  sprang  from  the  three  sons  of  Koah, 
the  sacred  history,  which  is  still  our  only  positive  authority,  begins 
with  the  story  of  the  Hebrew  race.  Not  that  this  was  the  first 
of  the  nations  in  chronological  order.  It  did  not  even  become  a 
nation  till  four  hundred  and  thirty  years  after  the  call  of  Abraham ; 
and  his  history  furnishes  abundant  proofs  that  great  cities  had 
already  been  built,  and  mighty  kingdoms  established.  The  very 
name  of  his  native  place,  TJr  of  the  Chaldees,  attests  that  it 
belonged  to  the  dominions  of  the  great  Cushite  empire  which  has 
already  been  mentioned  in  the  Book  of  Genesis,  and  with  which 
Abraham  comes  into  conflict  at  a  later  period.  Damascus  is 
already  an  important  city  ;  and,  as  Abraham  journeys  to  the 
south,  he  finds  Egypt  at  a  high  pitch  of  wealth  and  power,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  nations  of  the  Canaanites  and  Philistines. 

The  precedence  given  to  Abraham's  call  has  that  moral  signifi- 
cance, which  forms  the  true  life  of  history.  It  is  the  next  event 
after  the  confusion  of  the  Babel  builders,  in  which  the  direct  action 
of  God's  providence  is  seen,  and  the  first  step  in  that  course  of 


B.C.  1996.]     BIRTH  OF  ABRAHAM  AT  UR  OF  THE  CHALDEES.     50 

moral  government,  to  wliicli  all  the  afiairs  of  tlie  surrounding 
nations  are  secondary.  Following  the  same  order,  we  shall  take 
up  the  history  of  those  nations,  as  they  come  in  contact  with  the 
main  current  of  the  story  of  the  chosen  race. 

The  Scriptural  genealogy  follows  the  line  of  Shem  to  Abram, 
through  ten  generations  and  four  hundred  and  fifty  years ;  the 
birth  of  Shem  being  in  B.C.  2446,  and  .that  of  Abram  in  b.c.  1996, 
according  to  the  received  chronology.  In  the  fifth  generation,  the 
line  of  Shem  is  divided  into  two  by  the  two  sons  of  Eber,  Peleg 
and  Joktan  ;  of  whom  the  latter  became  the  ancestor  of  the  older 
Arabs,  while  the  descendants  of  the  former  were  named,  from  the 
common  ancestor,  Hebrews.  Thus  Abraham  is  called  the  Hebrew 
(Gen.  xiv.  13).* 

Four  generations  from  Peleg  bring  us  to  Terah,  the  father  of 
Abram,  Nahor,  and  Ilaran,  the  land  of  whose  nativity  was  "  Ur 
of  the  Chaldees."  But  this  very  statement  of  the  locality  raises  a 
difficulty  at  the  threshold.  The  prevailing  opinion  respecting  the 
site  of  Ur  identifies  it  with  the  Edessa  of  the  Greeks,  and  the 
modern  Orfah,  in  the  extreme  north  of  Mesopotamia,  beyond  the 
Euphrates,  within  the  great  bend  which  the  river  makes  in 
descending  from  Armenia  to  Syria.  Tliis  view  is  supported  by 
the  resemblance  of  name  (which  is  perhaps  more  apparent  than 
real),  the  local  traditions  about  Abraham,  and  the  fact  that  Char- 
ran,  the  first  stage  in  the  migration,  the  site  of  which  is  cer- 
tainly known,  lies  on  the  high  road  to  Palestine.  The  appella- 
tion "  Chaldaean  "  is  explained  on  the  assumption,  either  that  the 
great  Chaldsean  emj^ire  had  spread  thus  far  to  the  north,  or  that 
these  regions  formed  one  at  least  of  the  early  seats  of  the  Chal- 
dsean people.  On  the  other  hand,  some  of  the  most  recent  en- 
quirers in  this  field  place  Ur  at  the  very  lowest  part  of  the  course 
of  the  Euphrates,  on  the  right  bank  of  the  river,  opposite  to  the 
confluence  of  the  Shat-el-Hie,  wdiicli  unites  it  with  the  Tigris  ; 
once  probably  a  maritime  position,  though  now  120  miles  inland. 
The  site  is  marked  by  the  ruins  of  Mugheir,  a  city  dedicated  to 
the  Moon,  and  a  sacred  burial-place,  as  is  proved  by  its  innu- 
merable tombs.  This  spot  also  possesses  its  traditions  about 
Abraham.  It  seems  to  have  been  the  great  maritime  city  of  the 
Chaldsean  empire,  and  only  second  in  importance  to  Babylon,  if 
it  did  not  even  form  a  still  earlier  capital. 

*  It  is,  however,  only  fair  to  mentioi;  the  preference  of  some  of  the  best  Hebrew 
scholars  for  the  purely  geographical  origin  of  the  appellation,  as  signifying  one /ram 
the  other  side  of  the  Euphrates, = the  Greek  irepa.r-qs.  But  this  sense  does  not  exclude 
the  other. 


60  EARLY  HISTORY   OF  THE  HEBREW  RACE.     [Ceap.  V. 

But  how  can  we  account  for  Abraham's  journey  thence  to  the 
land  of  Canaan  by  way  of  Charran,  near  the  upper  course  of  the 
Euphrates  ?  It  is  answered,  first,  that  this  was  Jio  mere  journey, 
but  the  migration  of  a  wliole  patriarclial  family,  with  their  flocks 
and  herds,  which  could  make  no  safe  passage  across  the  desert. 
But,  besides,  it  does  not  appear  that  Canaan  was  the  first  goal  of 
the  migration.  Abram  "  was  called  to  go  into  a  land  that  God 
should  show  him,  and  he  went  forth,  not  knowing  whither  he 
went.''"'  Tlie  other  branch  of  Terah's  family,  that  of  Nahor, 
clearly  had  another  end  for  their  journey,  for  they  settled  in  the 
pasturages  about  Charran  ;  and  it  would  seem  to  have  been 
here  that  Abram  first  learnt  his  final  destination.  According  to 
this  view,  the  movement  was  a  great  migration  of  the  leading 
branch  of  the  Semitic  family,  who  had  preserved  the  worship 
of  the  true  God,  retiring  before  the  oppression  and  religious 
corruption  of  the  Cushite  sovereigns,  and  retracing  their  steps 
towards  the  highlands  from  which  their  fathers  had  descended.* 
Our  knowledge  is  hardly  ripe  for  a  decision  between  these  two 
views,  but  the  latter  is  far  too  important  not  to  be  fully  stated. 
The  former  has  still  powerful  advocates,  and  must  not  be  hastily 
rejected. 

From  this  ancient  city  of  Ur,  whatever  may  have  been  its  true 
position,  the  family  of  Terah  Avas  called  forth  by  a  divine  command 
addressed  to  Abram,  who  seems  to  have  been  the  youngest  of  his 
three  sons.  "We  are  expressly  told  that  idolatry  already  prevailed 
in  the  land ;  and  that  it  infected  the  family  of  Terah,  as  it  did 
afterwards  the  Israelites  in  Egypt.f  Oriental  tradition  has 
ascribed  to  Abram  the  most  courageous  attacks  upon  the  idols, 
and  miraculous  deliverances  from  the  rage  of  the  idolaters  ;  but 
the  sacred  history  is  content  with  the  record  of  his  faithful  obedi- 
ence to  the  divine  command,  which  called  him  to  found  a  great 
nation,  who  should  preserve  the  worship  and  covenant  of  God,  in 
some  land  as  yet  unknown  to  him,  and  which  promised  blessing 
and  security  to  his  descendants — nay  more,  a  blessing  through 
him  to  all  the  families  of  the  earth.  The  whole  family  joined 
in  the  migration — the  patriarch  Terah,  Abram's  brother  Kahor, 
and  Lot  the  son  of  his  other  brother  Haran,  who  had  already  died 
at  Ur.  The  two  daughters  of  Haran,  Milcah  and  Sarai  or  Iscah, 
were  married  to  their  uncles,  Nahor  and  Abram.  Kemote  as  is 
this  event,  such  are  the  unchanged  manners  of  those  countries,  that 

*  Respecting  the  kingdom  then  established  in  Chaldcea,  see  Book  ii.  chapter  is. 
f  Joshua  xxiv.  2,  14. 


B.C.  1921.]  THE   CALL   OF  ABRAM.  61 

tlie  spectator  of  a  caravan  of  Bedouins,  with  their  flocks  and  herds, 
may  at  this  day  witness  its  outward  appearance. 

The  first  permanent  resting-place  of  the  wanderers  was  Haran, 
or  rather  Charran,  in  Padan-Aram,  or  Upper  Mesopotomia.  The 
name  describes  the  region  ;  a  place  where  the  highlands  sink  down 
into  fertile  foot-hills,  rich  in  pasturage.  Sucli  is  the  country  that 
lies  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Masius,  between  the  great  bend  of  the 
Euphrates  and  the  river  Khabour,  watered  by  the  Belilk,  which 
flows  southwards  into  the  Euphrates.  !N'ear  its  source  is  Orfah, 
the  Ur  of  the  popular  belief,  and  about  half-way  down  its  course 
the  unchanged  name  of  Harran  still  marks  the  ancient  site.  Here 
Terali  died  ;  and  here  Nahor  settled  with  his  family,  whom  we  find, 
in  the  next  generation,  preserving  the  selfish  character  displayed 
in  such  a  choice ;  while  Abram,  with  his  nephew  Lot,  pressed 
onward,  moved,  as  it  would  seem,  by  a  renewal  of  the  divine  call. 
His  stay  at  ChaiTan  was  evidently  long,  and  his  wealth  in  cattle 
and  slaves  was  greatly  increased.  He  was  seventy-five  years  old 
when  he  left  Charran,  in  b.c.  1921, 

It  was  now  revealed  to  him  that  his  destination  was  the  land  of 
Canaan  ;  and  it  would  doubtless  be  a  new  trial  of  his  faith,  that 
he  was  called  to  live  among  that  very  Hamite  race  before  whose 
power  and  wickedness  he  had  fled  from  his  first  home.  Two  cara- 
van routes  lead  from  the  Euphrates  across  the  great  Syi'ian  Desert 
to  the  countries  on  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Mediterranean.  The 
shorter  and  more  northerly  tends  westward  to  the  upper  course  of 
the  Orontes,  which  the  traveller  follows  upward  into  the  deep  val- 
ley of  Coelesyria,  between  the  two  great  chains  of  Lebanon  and 
Anti-Libanus.  Emerging  thence  he  finds  himself  at  the  sources  of 
the  Jordan,  with  the  whole  land  of  Palestine  spread  before  him ;  a 
land  formed  by  the  hills  which  extend  southward  from  the  ranges 
of  Lebanon  to  the  peninsula  of  Arabia  Petrsea,  breaking  ofi"  on  the 
east  into  the  Desert,  and  sloping  down  on  the  west  to  the  Mediter- 
ranean ;  divided  from  north  to  south  by  the  great  depression  of 
the  Jordan  valley,  and  intersected  from  east  to  west  by  lateral 
valleys  and  plains.  The  other  route  strikes  to  the  south-west ; 
and,  after  a  long  journey  across  the  Desert,  divided  by  the  oasis 
of  Tadmor  or  Palmyra,  reaches  Damascus,  one  of  the  oldest  and 
fairest  cities  of  the  world.  It  is  built  in  an  oasis,  formed  by  the 
rivers  Abana  and  Phai-par,  with  innumerable  other  streamlets, 
which  descend  from  the  eastern  slope  of  Anti-Libanus,  and  are  not 
lost  in  the  Desert  till  they  have  clothed  with  verdure  and  beauty 
the  plain  over  which  the  houses  of  the  city  lie  scattered,  embosomed 


6S  EARLY  HISTORY   OF  THE   HEBREW  RACE.     [Chap.  V. 

in  groves  and  gardens.  By  whatever  route  Abraham  crossed  the 
Desert,  it  seems  clear  that  he  rested  at  Damascus,  as  the 
servant  who  became  the  head  of  his  household  w^as  a  native  of 
that  city.  From  Damascus  his  course  would  lie  over  the  hills 
on  the  eastern  side  of  the  valley  of  the  Jordan.  Having  passed 
the  rivers  Ilieromax  and  Jabbok,  which  flow  into  the  Jordan 
from  the  east,  he  turned  westward  across  the  river  and  entered 
the  promised  land  by  the  pass  which  leads  down  into  the  central 
valley  of  Shechem.  "  The  Canaanite  was  then  in  the  land  ; "  a 
statement  which  some  suppose  to  imply  the  displacement  of  an 
earlier  population.  The  city  of  Shechem  seems  to  have  been 
already  built ;  and  near  it  Abram  chose  a  grove  of  oaks  for  the 
site  of  his  encampment  and  of  the  altar  which  he  built  to  God, 
who  again  appeared  to  him  here.  Thus  was  the  worship  of  the 
true  God  re-established  amidst  the  idolatrous  children  of  Ham,  in 
the  very  spot  which  became  its  first  centre  when  the  people  of 
Abraham  came  forth,  as  a  nation,  from  Egypt. 

Whether  from  the  failure  of  pasturage,  or  to  avoid  collision  with 
the  people  of  the  land,  Abram  travelled  southwards  along  the  cen- 
tral highlands,  and  stayed  for  a  time  on  the  hills  between  Bethel 
and  Ai,  west  of  the  fertile  plain  of  the  lower  Jordan,  where  he  built 
another  altar  to  Jehovah.  Before  long  he  was  driven  by  a  famine  to 
take  refuge  in  Egypt,  where  his  dealings  with  Pharaoh  are  familiar  to 
every  reader  of  Scripture.  The  great  monarchy,  with  which  he  was 
thus  brought  into  contact,  will  claim  our  attention  in  the  next  book. 

Abram  returned  from  Egypt,  enriched  by  Pharaoh's  liberality, 
to  his  old  encampment  between  Bethel  and  Ai ;  but  the  very  increase 
of  his  wealth  proved  an  embarrassment.  The  mountain  pasturages 
become  too  scanty  for  his  own  flocks  and  those  of  his  nephew  Lot. 
They  agreed  to  part ;  and  Lot,  accepting  the  choice  offered  him  by 
Abram,  descended  into  the  plains  they  had  hitherto  avoided,  while 
Abram  was  consoled  for  his  worscr  share  by  a  new  promise  of  the 
inheritance  of  the  whole  land  to  a  progeny  countless  as  its  dust. 

The  region  of  Lot's  choice  was  the  lower  valley  of  the  Jordan, 
then  a  wide  plain,  fertile  and  well  watered  "  as  the  garden  of 
Jehovah."  Here  the  Canaanites  (the  dwellers  in  the  lowlands) 
had  established  the  jpentapoUs  of  Sodom,  Gomorrah,  Admah, 
Zeboiim,  and  Zoar,  each  city  under  its  own  king.  Built  in  a  most 
fertile  country,  these  cities  lay  in  the  track  of  the  commerce 
between  Arabia  and  Syria,  Egypt  and  the  East ;  and  their  ;vealth 
had  given  full  scope  to  the  lawlessness  which  from  the  first  had 
marked  their  race.     The  very  worst  vices  of  the  most  cornipted 


B.C.  1917  ?  ]  EXPEDITION  OF   CHEDORLAOMER.  63 

luxury  were  openly  practised  among  them,  and  things  of  which 
even  to  speak  is  shameful  derive  their  only  name  from  Sodom, 
where  Lot  already  began  to  be  punished  for  his  selfishness  by  grief 
at  the  wickedness  he  saw.  The  great  Chaldtean  empire  already 
mentioned,  and  from  which  Abrani  had  removed,  had  lately 
reduced  these  cities  to  a  tributary  condition.  After  twelve 
years'  subjection,  the  five  kings  revolted,  and  the  Chaldaean 
monarch,  Chedorloamer,  marched  against  them,  with  his  three 
allied  kings.  The  first  battle  recorded  in  the  world's  history  was 
fought  in  the  plain  of  Siddim,  now,  in  part  at  least,  the  basin  of 
the  Dead  Sea.  The  forces  of  the  five  kings  were  entangled  amidst 
the  bitumen  pits,  of  which  the  plain  was  full ;  and  the  victors 
retired  up  the  valley  of  the  Jordan,  carrying  ofi"  Lot  and  his  pro- 
perty amongst  the  spoil  of  Sodom.  The  rapid  pursuit  of  Abram, 
with  his  small  band  of  household  servants  and  the  followers  of  his 
Amorite  confederates,  his  surprise  and  defeat  of  the  retreating 
hosts,  whom  he  pursued  beyond  Damascus,  and  his  recovery  of  Lot 
with  all  the  spoil,  taught  the  great  Eastern  monarch  the  same  lesson 
which  had  already  been  impressed  on  Pharaoh,  that  a  power  more 
truly  great  than  all  their  kingdoms  had  arisen  in  their  midst.  The 
episode  of  Melchizedek's  welcome  to  Abram  on  his  return  is  too 
closely  connected  with  theological  questions  to  be  dwelt  on  here  ; 
but  it  seems  to  show  that  one  at  least  of  the  cities  of  Canaan  was 
held  by  a  patriarch  of  the  Shemite  race,  who  was  at  once  a  king 
and  a  priest  of  the  true  God. 

In  this  adventure  we  see  the  patriarch  for  the  first  time  in 
league  with  the  Canaanitish  tribes  of  the  Amorites,  the  people  of 
the  mountains,  as  the  Canaanites  (in  the  narrower  sense)  were  of 
the  plains.  The  former  seem  to  have  been  a  far  less  corrupted 
race,  for  we  are  told  that  "  the  iniquity  of  the  Amorites  was  not 
yet  full."  There  are  ten  tribes  enumerated  of  the  inhabitants  of 
the  land,  between  Egypt  and  the  Euphrates.  The  Kenites,  Keniz- 
zites,  and  Kadmonites  dwelt  on  the  east  of  the  Jordan.  .  The 
Hittites  (or  children  of  Heth),  Perrizzites,  and  Kephairas  were 
smaller  tribes  connected  with  the  great  nation  of  the  Amorites,  who 
occupied  the  central  highlands  from  the  valley  of  Shechem  south- 
wards. The  Canaanites  possessed  the  low  country,  both  along  the 
course  of  the  Jordan  and  in  the  great  maritime  plain,  for  the  latter 
does  not  seem  to  have  been  yet  invaded  by  the  Philistines.  The 
Girgashites  appear  to  have  been  a  mountain  tribe,  like  the  Jebu- 
sites,  whose  city  was  the  later  Jerusalem.  It  was  with  the  Hittites 
that  Abram  had  tlie  first  commercial  transaction  of  which  we 


64  EARLY  HISTORY  OF  THE  HEBREW  RACE.     [Chap.  V. 

read  in  history,  the  purchase  of  the  "  double  cave  "  of  Machpelah  as 
a  burying-place.  The  mention  in  this  affair  of  a  definite  weight  of 
silver,  as  "  current  money  with  the  merchant,"  proves  that  com- 
merce was  carried  on  among  these  tribes,  and  that  standards  of 
weight  and  value  had  been  already  settled.  Of  the  origin  of  such 
measures  we  shall  have  to  speak  presently. 

Abrani's  permanent  abode  had  been  fixed,  after  his  separa- 
tion from  Lot,  among  the  Amorites  of  the  southern  hills,  under 
the  oaks  of  Mamre,  near  Hebron,  one  of  the  oldest  cities  of  the 
world.    "  Hebron  was  built  seven  years  before  Zoan  in  Egypt."  * 

The  part  of  Abram's  life  subsequent  to  the  rescue  of  Lot  is 
chiefly  important  in  the  religious  history  of  the  world.  It  embraces 
the  great  covenant  which  God  made  with  him,  in  addition  to  the 
promise  already  given,  and  the  institution  of  circumcision  as  its 
seal ;  f  the  supernatural  birth  of  Isaac,  the  heir  of  the  promise, 
both  of  a  mighty  nation  and  of  the  great  descendant  in  whom  all 
families  of  the  earth  should  be  blessed  ;  the  trial  of  the  patriarch's 
faith,  and  the  redemption  of  Isaac  from  sacrifice ;  the  death  of 
Sarah,  and  her  burial  at  Machpelah.  It  was  shortly  after  her  death 
that  Abraham  married  Isaac  to  Kebekah,  the  grand-daughter  of 
his  brother  Nahor,  whose  family  was  still  settled  at  Charran,  "  the 
city  of  Nahor."  The  birth  of  Isaac's  twin  sons,  Esau  and  Jacob, 
took  place  according  to  the  received  chronology  in  b.c.  1837,  fifteen 
years  before  the  death  of  Abraham,  who  thus  literally  "  dwelt  in 
tents  with  Isaac  and  Jacob,  heirs  with  him  of  the  same  promise." 

During  this  period,  also,  we  have  some  important  notices  of  the 
surrounding  nations.  First  comes  the  catastrophe  of  the  cities  of 
the  plain,  which  changed  the  fertile  valley  of  the  lower  Jordan  into 
a  spot  which  no  traveller  sees  without  acknowledging  the  marks  of 
the  Divine  judgment.  At  the  depth  of  1317  feet  below  the  level  of 
the  Mediterranean,  the  Dead,  or,  as  the  Jews  always  called  it,  the 
Salt  Sea,  receives  the  waters  of  the  Jordan  within  its  shores 
blasted  by  volcanic  action.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  its  intensely 
bitter  waters  cover  most  of  the  once  fair  vale  of  Siddim,  though 
aU  attempts  have  proved  vain  to  discover  traces  of  the  devoted 
cities,  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  Admah  and  Zeboiim.  Bela,  or  Zoar, 
alone  was  spared,  as  a  refuge  for  Lot,  from  whose  incest  with  his 
two  daughters  sprang  the  peoples  of  Moab  and  Benammi  (or 
Ammon),  who  settled  among  the  hills  to  the  east  of  the  Jordan 

*  Numbers  xiii.  22. 

f  It  wa3  on  this  occasion  that  his  name  was  changed  from  Ab-ram,  exalted  father^ 
to  Ab-raham,  father  of  a  multitude. 


B.C.  1760.]        FLIGHT   OF  JACOB  TO  PADAN-AEAM.  6a 

and  tlie  Dead  Sea.  About  the  same  time,  the  relations  of  Abraham 
with  Abimelech,  king  of  Gerar,  afterwards  renewed  by  Isaac,  show 
lis  the  Philistines  occupying  the  border  land  between  Canaan  and 
Egypt.  The  exile  of  Ishmael,  the  son  of  Abraham  by  his  servant 
Hagar,  led  to  the  establishment  of  his  descendants,  the  twelve 
tribes  of  the  Bedouin  Arabs,  "  to  the  east  of  all  their  brethren," 
Jews,  Moabites,  Ammonites,  and  Edomites,  in  the  northern  deserts 
of  Arabia  ;  while  the  Keturai'te  Arabs,  children  of  Abraham  and 
Keturah,  were  intermixed  with  the  older  Jpktanite  and  Cushite 
tribes  of  the  peninsula.  These  branches  of  his  family  were  sent 
away  by  Abraham  with  gifts,  during  his  lifetime,  that  they  might 
not  dispute  the  inheritance  with  Isaac.  Through  all  the  history  of 
the  Arab  race,  they  have  never  forgotten  the  tie  to  their  progeni- 
tor. It  will  be  long  before  they  reappear  as  bearing  any  distin- 
guished part  in  history. 

Abraham  died  at  the  age  of  175,  in  the  year  b.c.  1822  of 
received  chronology,  and  was  buried  by  Isaac  and  Ishmael  at 
Machpelah.  The  quiet  life  of  Isaac  offers  no  materials  for  a  gen 
eral  history.  His  two  sons,  Esau  and  Jacob,  the  huntsman  and 
the  shepherd,  were  marked  from  the  very  womb  as  the  progeni- 
tors of  hostile  though  kindred  races,  and  this  prophecy  tinges  the 
whole  current  of  Jewish  history.  We  need  not  dwell  on  the  fami- 
liar story  of  their  early  lives,  the  importance  of  which  is  moral  and 
religious,  rather  than  historical ;  but  still  the  historian  must  not 
overlook  the  lesson  to  be  learnt  from  the  faults  of  Jacob  and  his 
sons,  that  divine  providence  measures  out  privileges  to  nations  by 
another  standard  than  that  of  the  merit  of  their  ancestors. 

When  Jacob,  after  fraudulently  obtaining  the  patriarchal  bless- 
ing, which  his  brother  would  have  as  fraudulently  received  after  he 
had  foolishly  sold  it,  fled  to  his  mother's  relatives  at  Padan-Aram 
(b.c.  1760),  Esau,  who  was  seventy-seven  years  old,  had  already 
married  two  Hittite  women,  and  now,  to  please  his  father,  he  mar- 
ried Mahalath,  the  daughter  of  Ishmael.  These  intermarriages 
seem  to  mark  the  Edomites  as  from  the  first  a  very  mixed  race. 
But  another  element  went  to  make  up  that  nation.  Esau  fixed 
his  abode  ultimately  in  the  chain  of  mountains  which  runs  south- 
wards from  the  valley  of  the  Jordan  and  Dead  Sea  to  the  head  of 
the  eastern  gulf  of  the  Red  Sea,  under  the  name  of  Mount  Seir, 
and  formed  matrimonial  alliances  with  the  old  inhabitants,  the 
Horites.  The  latter  people  were  ultimately  absorbed  in  the  Edom- 
ites, who  grew  into  a  great  nation,  with  the  cities  of  Selali  (Petra) 
and  Bozrali  for  their  capitals,  and  Elath  (JElana)  and  Ezion-Geber 

VOL.  I. 5 


66  EARLY  HISTORY  OF  THE  HEBREW  RACE.     [Chap.  V. 

for  tlieir  i)orts  on  the  Red  Sea.     Tliey  will  reappear  again  and 
again  in  the  conrse  of  Jewish  history. 

Meanwhile,  Jacob  had  fulfilled  his  twenty  years'  servitude  to  his 
cousin  and  father-in-law,  Laban,  in  Mesopotamia,  and  returned, 
with  his  two  wives  and  their  two  handmaids,  his  eleven  sons,  and 
immense  wealth  in  fiocks  and  herds  and  slaves,  over  the  river 
Jabbok,  which  he  had  crossed  as  a  lonely  fugitive,  with  no  posses- 
sion but  his  shepherd's  staff  (b.c.  1739).  Like  Abraham,  180 
years  before,  he  passed  over  the  Jordan  into  the  vale  of  Shechem. 
But  the  land  was  now  more  densely  peopled  ;  the  Amorites  had 
built  new  cities,  such  as  Shalem  ;  and  Jacob  had  to  buy  of  their 
princes  the  land  on  which  he  pitched  his  camp  and  built  an  altar 
to  "  God,  the  God  of  Israel,"  the  new  name  which  the  patriarch 
had  earned  by  his  wrestling  with  Jehovah.  He  was  soon  brought 
into  collision  with  the  people  of  Shechem,  by  their  insolence,  which 
was  treacherously  and  cruelly  avenged  by  his  sons,  Simeon  and 
Levi.  Shechem  was  spoiled  ;  but  a  retreat  seems  to  have  been 
necessary  for  fear  of  the  vengeance  of  the  other  Amorites.  They, 
on  their  part,  had  not  the  courage  to  pursue  Jacob  as  he  went  on 
southwards  to  Bethel,  close  to  the  second  encampment  of  Abra- 
ham, and  the  scene  of  the  vision  granted  to  him  on  his  flight,  in 
memory  of  which  the  city,  formerly  called  Luz,  was  now  named 
Bethel  (the  House  of  God),  On  the  further  jonrney  from  Bethel 
to  Isaac's  encampment  at  Hebron,  Jacob's  family  was  completed 
by  the  birth  of  Benjamin,  but  at  the  price  of  the  life  of  his  beloved 
Rachel,  near  Ephrath,  the  later  Bethlehem.  Sixteen  years  later, 
lie  again  met  Esau  at  the  burial  of  Isaac  at  Machpelah  (b.c.  1716). 

Jacob  continued  to  live  at  Hebron  as  a  patriarchal  prince,  like 
some  modern  Arab  sheikh,  respected  and  feared  by  the  people  of 
the  land.  He  ai:)pears  to  have  given  a  second  blow  to  the 
Shechemites  by  wresting  from  them  in  war  the  possession  which 
they  had  probably  resumed  after  his  departure  to  the  south.  His 
sons  fed  his  flocks  at  their  well  near  Shechem,  and  still  further  to 
the  north.  It  seemed  as  if  this  foreign  tribe  were  to  overspread 
the  land.  But  it  was  otherwise  appointed ;  and  no  lesson  of  history 
is  of  deeper  moral  significance  than  the  process  by  which  the 
Israelites  were  hardened  by  suff'ering  and  compacted  into  a  nation, 
during  their  residence  in  Egyj^t.  Their  condition  throughout  the 
interval  from  their  descent  into  Egypt  to  the  great  epoch  of  the 
Exodus  (e.g.  1491),  will  be  better  understood  after  we  have  taken 
a  survey  of  Egyptian  history. 


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iiilliiiliillilliiilliililillillliliMllukiiiiiiliiiUii^       M'Mm ;iiii;iii«'iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiu»iu».iiiiiiuimi. 


BOOK  II. 
THE   GREAT  MONARCHIES  OF  THE   EAST. 


FROM  THE  EARLIEST  EGYPTIAN  TRADITIONS  TO   THE 
REIGN  OF  DARIUS   HYSTASPIS. 


N.  B. — The  Xote  respecting  the  early  Chrouology,  on  page  1 ,  needs  repetition  here, 
especially  as  the  computed  Egyptian  chronology  goes  back  beyond  the  date  assigned  by 
Ussher  to  the  Flood.  The  dates  given  in  the  two  Chapters,  VI.  and  VII.,  are  merely 
intended  to  represent  the  opinions  of  Egyptologers.  A  similar  remark  applies  to  the 
early  Babylonian  chronology  in  Chapter  IX. 


CONTENTS   OF  BOOK  II. 


CHAP. 
VI.— THE   HISTORY   OF  EGYPT   TO   THE   EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY. 

VII.— THE  HISTORY  OF  EGYPT  FROM  THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY 

VIII.— HISTORY   OF  THE   HEBREW   THEOCRACY   AND   MONARCHY. 

IX.— THE  CHALDiEAN,   ASSYRIAN,   AND   BABYLONIAN  EMPIRES. 

X.— THE  MEDO-PERSIAN  EMPIRE   TO   DARIUS  HYSTASPIS. 


ANTIQUITY  OF  EGYPT.  69 


CHAPTER  VI. 


THE    HISTOKY    OF   EYGPT    TO    THE    SHEPHERD  INVASION. 
B.C.  2717?  TO  B.C.  2080? 


"Virtue  alone  outbuilds  the  Pyramids; 
Her  monuments  shall  last,  when  Egypt's  fall." — Young. 


kNTIQCITY  OF  EGYPT— NAMES  OF  THE  COUNTET — GEOGRAPHY  OF  EGYPT — THE  NILE — ITS  INDN- 
DATION — LIMITS  AND  AREA  OF  EGYPT — ANCIENT  CONDITION  AND  PRODUCTIONS — ADVAN- 
TAGE OF  ITS  POSITION — RELATION  TO  ITS  NEIGHBOURS — ORIGINAL  POPULATION — A  MIXED 
RACE,  CHIEFLY  HAMITIC — AUTHORITIES — SCRIPTURE — GREEK  WRITERS — MONUMENTS  AND 
PAPYRI — EGYPTIAN  WRITING — MANETHO — ASTRONOMICAL  RECORDS — DATE  OF  THE  PYRAMIDS 
— EGYPTIAN  TECHNICAL  CHRONOLOGY — HISTORICAL  CHRONOLOGY — TRADITIONAL  HISTORY — 
RULE  OF  THE  GODS — FIRST  DYNASTY:  MENES — SECOND  DYNASTY."  QUEEN  NITOCRIS — MEM- 
PHITE  DYNASTIES:  THIRD,  FOURTH,  AND  SIXTH — HIGH  STATE  OF  CIVILIZATION — HERACLEO- 
POLITE  DYNASTIES  :  NINTH  AND  TENTH — THEBAN  KINGDOM  :  ELEVENTH  AND  TWELFTH  DY- 
NASTIES— INVASION  OF  THE  SHEPHERDS — MONUMENTS  OF  THE  EARLY  PHARAOHS — PYRAMIDS 
AND  TOMBS — EGYPTIAN  BELIEF  CONCERNING  THE  DEAD — DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  PYRAMIDS. 

Of  the  two  regions  in  which  the  race  of  Ham  founded  the 
earliest  known  kingdoms  and  made  the  first  advances  in  learning 
and  civilization,  namely,  the  valley  of  the  Nile  and  that  of  the 
Tigris  and  the  Euphrates,  we  must  allow  Egypt  the  precedence  in 
antiquity.  The  mere  claim  of  the  people  to  be  the  oldest  among 
mankind  is,  indeed,  of  little  more  value  than  the  strange  experi- 
ment of  Psammetichus  to  test  its  truth.  Tliat  king  of  Egypt, 
Herodotus  tells  us,  caused  two  new-born  children  to  be  brought 
up  in  a  hut,  upon  the  milk  of  goats,  w^ith  no  other  attendant  than 
the  goatherd,  who  was  forbidden  to  utter  a  word  in  their  presence. 
"When  they  had  passed  the  age  of  inarticulate  mutterings,  the 
herdsman  was  one  day  astonished  to  see  the  children  toddle  up 
to  him  crying  1)61:08.  But  when  this  had  happened  often,  and 
the  king  had  found  upon  inquiry  that  heJcos  was  the  Phrygian 
for  l)read,  the  experiment  seemed  decisive.  Tliat  the  Egyptians, 
upon  such  evidence  as  this,  yielded  the  honour  of  antiquity  to  the 
Phrygians,  would  have  been  altogether  incredible,  had  not  the 
histoi'ian  related  the  test  as  if  he  himself  believed  in  its  value. 
And  yet  we  can  hardly  tell,  in  this  and  other  instances,  how  much 
sly  humour  is  hidden  under  the  quiet  gravity  of  Herodotus. 

Yery  different  is  the  real  evidence  for  the  antiquity  of  the 
nation,  its  government,  and  its  civilization.     While  the  sacred 


70  THE  HISTORY  OF  EGYPT.  [Chap.  VI. 

record  of  tlic  primeval  peopling  of  the  eai-th  represents  the  names 
of  all  other  countries  as  derived  from  the  descendants  of  Noah's 
sous,  Egypt  Lore  the  name  of  one  of  those  sons  themselves.  It 
is  true  that  Mizraim,  the  Scriptural  name  of  the  country,  is  that 
only  of  a  son  of  Ham,  and  not  the  eldest,  and  that  the  description 
of  Kgypt  as  "  the  land  of  Ilam,"  does  not  necessarily  imply  more 
than  a  remote  derivation  of  its  people.  But  the  case  is  much 
stronger  when  we  find  that  the  native  name  of  the  country  was 
tliat  of  the  patriarch  himself.  The  name  Khem  by  which  Egypt 
is  denoted  on  its  monuments,  is  the  same  as  the  Hebrew  Ham  (or 
rather  Cham),  and  has  a  kindred  signification.  The  Egyj^tian 
word  gives  the  phonetic  value  of  the  hieroglyphic  sign  for  the 
country,  the  crocodile's  tail,  which  varies  in  colour  from  slate  to 
reddish  brown.  The  Hebrew,  derived  from  a  root  signifying 
"  heat,"  fitly  describes  the  ancestors  of  the  dark  races,  like  the 
Greek  Ethiopian ;  while  the  same  word  in  the  cognate  Arabic, 
denotes  "fetid  black  mud,"  such  as  that  of  the  valley  of  the  Nile. 
In  Arabic,  too,  we  see  the  link  between  the  two  names,  Khem 
and  Mizraim,  for  misr  also  signifies  "  red  mud,"  and  hence  the 
colour  of  red  and  reddish  brown.  To  this  day  Misr  is  used  as  a 
name  of  Egypt  by  the  Arabs,  and  it  has  been  found  on  an  ancient 
Assyrian  inscription.  It  appears,  in  fact,  to  be  the  Semitic  equiv- 
alent to  the  Hamitic  Chem,  a  name  of  prophetic  signification,  like 
those  of  Noah,  Japheth,  and  probably  Sliem.  The  Hebrew  sin- 
gular Mazor,  which  is  sometimes  found,  may  perhaps  even  be 
regarded  as  the  personal  name  of  Ham  in  the  Semitic  dialects. 
The  dual  form,  Mizraim,  which  is  much  more  common,  points  to 
the  twufold  division  of  the  country  into  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt. 
Another  biblical  name  is  Rahab  {the proud). 

The  conclusion,  that  Egypt  was  the  chief  primeval  seat  of 
the  race  of  Ham,  seems  somewhat  at  variance  with  the  biblical 
genealogy,  which  makes  Mizraim  only  the  second  son  of  Ham, 
and  Cush  the  eldest.  Accordingly  some  ethnologists  seek  for  the 
primitive  seats  of  the  Ilamite  race,  not  in  the  valley  of  the  Nile 
itself,  but  in  the  hills  about  its  upper  course,  the  Cush  of  Scrip- 
ture, and  the  Ethiopia  above  Egypt  of  the  Greeks,  whence  they 
suppose  that  one  stream  of  population  descended  the  Nile  to 
Egypt,  while  another  moved  eastward  across  Arabia  into  Chal- 
dsea.  But  it  is  pretty  evident  that  the  original  settlers,  who 
descended  from  the  common  centre  in  Armenia,  must  have 
ascended  the  Nile  to  reach  Ethiopia,  unless  they  came  by  the 
opposite  route  from  Chakla?a,  which  is  most  improbable.     Nor 


GEOGRAPHICAL  POSITION  OF  EGYPT.  71 

does  it  seem  unlikely  that  migrations  may  liave  taken  place  both 
up  and  down  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  as  we  know  to  have  been  the 
case  with  the  tide  of  conquest  in  historic  times.  It  would  appear 
that  in  the  time  of  Moses  the  existing  Egyptians  were  fitly  repre- 
sented as  standing  in  a  secondary  relation  to  the  founder  of  their 
race,  while  the  older  Cushite  population  of  the  country  had  re- 
ceded further  to  the  south. 

The  peculiar  geographical  position  of  Egypt  adds  probability 
to  these  claims  of  high  antiquity.  Consisting  really  of  the  valley 
of  the  Mle,  and  shut  in  by  the  deserts  of  Arabia  and  Libya  on  the 
east  and  west,  it  lay  open  on  the  north  alone  to  the  great  stream 
of  immigration  from  the  Armenian  highlands  through  Syria  and 
Palestine.  "When  the  valley  of  the  'NHq  and  the  highlands  about 
its  upper  course  were  once  peopled  with  kindred  races,  the  in- 
trusion of  foreign  elements  became  very  difficult.  The  country 
was  subjugated  by  Ethiopian  conquerors ;  but  these  were  allied  to 
the  Egyptians  in  race,  manners,  and  religion.  A  Semitic  race, 
the  Shepherd  Kings,  at  one  time  oveiTan  Egypt ;  but  they  were 
expelled.  The  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  monarchs  never  suc- 
ceeded in  permanently  subduing  their  rivals  on  the  Nile.  Even 
when  the  people  yielded  to  a  Persian  conqueror,  their  ancient 
character  remained  almost  unchanged.  Commercial  intercourse 
with  the  Greeks  was  as  slow  in  its  influence  as  European  dealings 
with  China  in  our  own  time.  No  permanent  change  was  effected 
till  the  conquests  of  Alexander  led  to  a  Greek  colonization  of  the 
country ;  and  even  then  the  Ptolemies  confonned  in  many  re- 
spects to  the  peculiar  institutions  of  their  subjects,  to  which 
Christianity  alone  had  power  to  give  the  final  death-blow. 

The  language  of  ancient  Egypt  also  bears  marks  of  the  highest 
antiquity.  It  has  the  agglutinative  and  monosyllabic  structure 
of  the  Turanian  dialects.  It  exhibits  points  of  affinity  with  the 
Chinese  as  well  as  the  Nigritian  dialects,  and  it  partakes  of  a 
Semitic  character,  especially  in  its  pronouns  and  its  grammatical 
constructions.  Tliis  evidence  agrees  with  the  physical  qualities, 
the  habits,  and  the  religion  of  the  ancient  Egyptians,  to  place 
them  as  a  link  between  the  Semitic  and  Nigritian  races.  Their 
reddish  colour  distinguished  them  both  from  the  white  Caucasian 
and  black  Negro  races,  while  the  thick  lips  and  elongated  eye 
connect  them  with  the  Nubians  of  Ethiopia.  To  the  contem- 
plative and  religious  nature  of  the  Asiatic,  they  added  the  de- 
graded fetishism  of  the  African  race,  in  their  elaborate  system  of 
animal  worship.     Their  frugal  habits  were  marred  by  occasional 


72  THE  HISTORY  OF  EGYPT.  [Chap.  VI. 

jixury  and  the  grossest  sensuality.  Their  patriotism  was  mingled 
with  the  greatest  prejudice  against  foreigners,  though  they  treated 
them  witli  liospitality.  One  of  the  most  striking  characteristics 
is  the  division  of  the  peoj^le  into  castes,  that  is,  classes  devoted 
to  particular  occuj)ations,  and  kept  distinct  from  each  other  in 
blood.*  This  institution  is  an  infallible  sign  of  a  mixed  popula- 
tion, in  wiiich  one  people  has  been  overpowered  by  another,  the 
conquerors  forming  the  higher  castes.  These  are  always,  as  in 
ancient  Egypt,  the  priests  and  warriors,  the  former  generally 
preserving  the  ascendency  over  the  latter  which  intellect  gives. 
The  king  belonged  to  both  castes,  being  the  chief  priest  as  well 
as  the  civil  ruler  of  the  nation.  His  authority  was  limited,  not 
only  by  the  laws,  but  by  the  minute  regulations  for  his  life  im- 
posed upon  him  by  the  priests.  His  power  in  war  depended  on 
his  gratifying  the  soldiers.  These  relations  provoked,  of  course, 
jealousies  and  collisions,  which  may  often  be  traced  in  the  history 
of  Egypt.  The  whole  land  was  in  the  possession  of  the  king  and 
these  two  castes,  the  priests  having  the  sacred  domains,  and  the 
soldiers  certain  estates  free  from  taxes.  The  agriculturists,  who 
formed  the  next  class,  seem  to  have  held  their  land  chiefly  under 
the  king,  to  whom  they  paid  a  tithe,  which  Avas  doubled  by  the 
policy  of  Joseph  during  the  great  famine.f  The  artizans  came 
next ;  and  last  the  shepherds,  who  were  an  "  abomination,"  like 
the  pariahs  of  India.  The  minute  details  given  by  Herodotus 
are  very  uncertain.  The  higher  castes  were  undoubtedly  of  the 
Caucasian  race ;  the  lower  were  a  mixed  population  chiefly  of 
the  Nigritian  type. 

The  mixed  character  of  the  people  joined  with  the  peculiar 
position  of  their  country  to  make  the  ancients  doubt  whether 
Egypt  belonged  to  Africa  or  Asia.  It  was,  in  fact,  locally  Afri- 
can, but  Asiatic  in  its  social  affinities  and  its  political  relations. 
Far  more  important  than  such  technical  divisions  is  its  physical 
connexion  with  the  surrounding  region.  We  have  already  spoken 
of  the  Nile  valley,  as  a  depression  in  the  great  desert  zone  which 
stretches  from  the  Atlantic  coast  of  Africa  nearly  to  the  shores 
of  the  Yellow  Sea,  a  depression  much  shallower  than  the  Red 
Sea,  and  narrower  than  Mesopotamia.     This  valley  is  divided 

*  This,  of  course,  only  applies  to  the  pure  castes. 

f  Genesis  xlvii.  The  lands  of  the  priests  were  exempt  from  this  charge  and 
aclcnowledgmeut  of  royal  ownership ;  but  nothing  is  said  of  those  of  the  soldiers.  At 
a  much  later  period,  Herodotus  tells  us  of  an  attempt  to  confiscate  them  by  the  sup- 
posed priest-king  Sethos. 


THE  VALLEY  OF  THE  NILE.  73 

from  the  surrounding  deserts  by  ranges  of  hills  on  the  east  and 
the  west ;  but  these  alone  would  be  a  feeble  barrier  against 
the  sands.  It  is  the  fertilizing  flood  of  the  Nile  that  makes 
the  distinction  between  Egypt  and  the  deserts  on  either  side. 
The  "Abyss  of  Waters"  (for  so  the  Egyptians  called  it), 
whose  source  was  one  of  the  great  problems  of  the  ancient 
world, — a  problem  which  Pharaohs,  Ptolemies,  and  Csesars 
sought  in  vain  to  solve, — has  at  last  been  seen  by  our  coun- 
trymen Speke  and  Grant,  issuing  from  the  great  lake,  called 
Victoria  ifyanza,  just  under  the  equator,  and  on  the  eastern 
margin  of  the  table-land  of  Central  Africa.  Its  course  of  al- 
most 3000  miles  to  the  Mediterranean  is  so  nearly  due  north, 
that  the  meridian  of  30  degrees  E.  longitude,  which  cuts  across 
its  western  mouth,  is  very  near  its  chief  bend  above  the  20th 
parallel  of  latitude,  grazes  its  first  bend  below  the  lOtli  parallel, 
and  passes  but  little  to  the  west  of  the  Lake  Yictoria  IsTyanza 
itself. 

This  main  stream,  fed  from  other  great  lakes  in  the  same 
swampy  table-land,  and  enlarged  by  numerous  tributaries,  of 
which  the  chief  is  the  Bahr-el-Gkazal  from  the  west,  flows  in  its 
northern  course  over  about  16  degrees  of  latitude  (more  than  1000 
miles,  including  windings),  to  the  modern  city  of  Khartoum.  Here 
it  receives  the  first  of  the  two  great  rivers  which\drain  the  high- 
lands of  Abyssinia,  the  Astapus  and  Astaboras  of  the  ancients, 
the  latter,  which  is  still  called  Atbara,  joining  it  about  170  miles 
lower.  While  all  three  branches  contributed  to  the  inundation  of 
the  lower  Nile,  under  the  joint  operation  of  the  equatorial  summer 
rains  and  the  melting  of  the  mountain  snows,  it  is  to  the  Abyssi- 
nian confluents  that  the  flood  owes  its  fertilizing  power.  The 
Astapus  especially  brings  down  such  a  vast  amount  of  soil  and 
decayed  vegetable  matter,  that  it  has  received  the  name  of  the 
Blue  Kiver  {Bahr-el-AzreTc,  in  Arabic) ;  and  the  contrast  it 
presents  at  Khartoum  to  the  clear  water  of  the  main  stream  has 
given  to  the  latter  the  title  of  White  Eiver  {Bahr-el-Abiad).* 
There  is,  however,  no  proper  ground  for  the  question  which  of 
these  rivers  is  the  true  Nile.  Though,  in  the  season  of  flood, 
the  Blue  Eiver  pours  down  the  larger  volume  of  water,  in  the 
dry  season  it  often  dwindles  to  an  insignificant  and  fordable 
Btream;  and  the  Astaboras  is  very  much  smaller.   The  great  plain 

*  The  turbidness  which  affects  the  whole  river  below  the  confluence,  is  the  origin 
of  its  chief  name  in  Hebrew  {Shihor,  i.  e.  the  black  river). 


74  THE  HISTORY  OF  EGYPT.  [Chap.  VL 

enclosed  between  these  two  rivers  and  the  Nile  forms  tlie  "  island 
of  Meroo  "  of  the  ancients,  the  seat  of  a  great  Cushite  kingdom, 
which  rivalled  that  of  Egypt.  Below  the  Atbara  the  Nile  com- 
pletes the  second  half  of  its  course  without  receiving  a  single 
tributary.  In  Nubia,  where  it  makes  its  greatest  bend,  it  falls 
over  a  series  of  rocky  shelves,  forming  rapids,  which  were 
called  by  the  Greeks  Cataracts.  The  most  considerable  of  these 
are  five  in  number,  and  the  lowest,  which  is  called  the  First, 
reckoning  up  the  stream,  has  always  been  considered  as  the 
southern  boundary  of  Egypt.  It  lies  so  little  north  of  the  tropic 
of  Cancer,  that  at  Syene  (Assouan)  just  below  it,  Herodotus  was 
told  that  the  sun  was  reflected  vertically  in  a  well  at  the  summer 
solstice ;  but  this  is  not  literally  true.  From  Syene  the  Nile 
flows  between  high  banks  of  nnid,  in  the  valley  bounded  by  the 
hills  already  mentioned,  the  plain  between  them  having  an  average 
width  of  about  seven  miles,  till  it  passes  Cairo  and  the  Pyramids, 
in  about  30°  N.  latitude.  Here  it  divides  into  two  branches,  which 
enclose  the  great  alluvial  plain  called  the  Delta,  from  its  resem- 
blance to  that  letter  (A),  a  term  which  geographers  have  extended 
to  similar  formations  at  the  mouths  of  rivers  in  general.  In 
ancient  times  the  river  flowed  through  the  Delta  in  seven  channels, 
five  of  which,  Herodotus  tells  us,  were  natural,  while  two  were 
artificial.  These  two,  which  formed  the  extreme  branches  to  the 
east  and  west,  are  now  the  only  mouths.  The  valley  of  the  river 
may  be  compared  to  a  flower  with  a  branching  head  on  a  single 
long  stem,  or  to  a  serpent  with  several  heads,  a  likeness  which 
seems  to  be  intended  in  several  passages  of  Scripture.*  This  form 
has  given  rise,  from  time  immemorial,  to  that  subdivision  of  the 
country  into  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt,  which  is  implied  in  the 
dual  name  of  Mizraitn.  The  exact  point  of  division  was  above 
Memphis,  which  was  not  so  far  south  of  the  apex  of  the  Delta  as 
at  present.  The  subdivision  of  Upper  Egypt  into  the  Ileptanomis 
(or  middle  Egypt),  and  the  Thebaid  (or  Upper  Eg}^t),  dates  from 
the  early  Csesars. 

Thus  far  we  have  spoken  of  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  and  this  is,  in 
fact,  physically  the  land  of  Egypt.  Herodotus  records  an  oracle  of 
Ammon,  defining  Egypt  as  the  country  overflowed  by  the  Nile,  as 
far  south  as  the  first  cataract.  The  deserts  of  Libya  and  Arabia, 
and  even  the  hills  which  bound  the  valley  of  the  river  on  either 
Bide,  are  most  properly  excluded  by  this  definition ;  for  their 

*  Fsalm  Ixxiv.  13,  14 ;  Isaiah  xxviL  1,  li.  9 ;  Ezekiel  xxix,  3,  xxxii.  2. 


INUNDATION  OF  THE  NILE.  75 

nomad  population  lias  always  been  quite  distinct  from  the  inliabi- 
tants  of  Egypt.  It  is  solely  to  the  inundation,  and  to  the  soil  de- 
posited by  the  river,  that  Egypt  owes  its  existence  as  a  habitable 
land,  for  rain  scarcely  ever  falls.  Beginning  to  rise  about  the 
summer  solstice,  and  overflowing  about  two  months  later,  the 
river  pours  its  turbid  red  waters  over  the  fields  through  innumer- 
able canals  and  cnttings  in  the  banks.  About  the  autumnal 
equinox  the  inundation  has  reached  its  height.  It  subsides  much 
more  slowly  than  it  rose,  leaving  a  deposit  of  rich  black 
mud,  upon  which  the  seed  is  sown  without  ploughing  or  any 
other  tillage.'^  The  crops  thus  sown  about  a  month  after  the 
autumnal  equinox  are  reaped  after  the  vernal  equinox  :  flax  and 
barley  being  the  earliest,  wheat  and  rye  later.f  When  the  inun- 
dation falls  short  of  the  average  height  by  only  a  few  inches,  large 
portions  of  the  country  are  consigned  to  sterility  and  famine ; 
while  an  unusual  rise  may  devastate  w^hole  districts.;}:  Parallel 
to  the  river,  on  its  west  side,  at  a  distance  of  from  three  to  six 
miles,  the  canal  called  in  its  lower  part  Josefhus  River  {Bahr- 
You8souf)%  runs  from  a  point  above  Abydos  to  the  Canopic  (the 
western)  branch  of  the  river,  with  which  it  has  several  other 
points  of  connexion.  Kear  the  ancient  Heracleopolis  a  branch 
goes  off  to  the  great  lake  of  Moeris  {BirJcet-et-Keroum),  a  natural 
lake,  though  the  works  of  the  Egyptian  kings  upon  it  for  the  regu- 
lation of  the  inundation,  gained  them  the  credit  of  its  formation. 
With  good  reason,  therefore,  the  Egyptians  called  their  land 
the  gift  of  the  river.  The  average  rate  of  the  addition'  made  to 
the  soil  is  about  4|^  inches  in  a  century.  Assuming  that  the  val- 
ley of  the  Nile  was  once  a  rocky  chasm,  like  the  bed  of  the  Eed 
Sea,  and  that  the  space  now  occupied  by  the  Delta  was  an  estu- 
ary, many  writers,  from  Herodotus  downwards,  have  tried  to  cal- 
culate the  long  ages  during  which  the  WAe  has  been  filling  up 
the  bottom  of  the  valley  and  projecting  the  Delta  into  the  sea. 
But  they  overlooked  the  fact,  that  the  alluvium  is  only  a  super- 
ficial deposit,  under  which  we  soon  come  to  the  rocks,  which  are 
limestone  as  far  as  the  upper  part  of  the  Thebaid,  where  the  sub- 
jacent sandstone  appears  above  the  surface,  followed  by  breccia 

*  The  plough  was,  however,  used  where  the  soil  required  it,  and  all  the  processes 
of  agriculture  are  seen  on  the  monuments. 

\  Exodus  ix. 

X  An  example  occurs  at  the  very  moment  of  writing  this  passage,  in  the  autumn 
of  1863,  when  an  excessive  inundation  has  done  great  damage. 

§  The  name  is  derived,  not  from  the  patriarch,  but  from  an  Arab  ruler  who 
Improved  the  canal.     Its  origin  is  unknown. 


76  *  THE  HISTORY  OP  EGYPT.  [Chap.  VL 

and  various  primitive  rocks,  till  at  Syene  we  reach  the  granite 
which  was  used  for  the  chief  colossal  statues.  The  actual  rise  of 
the  soil,  as  measured  by  its  accumulation  around  ancient  monu- 
ments,  lias  been  estimated,  near  the  first  cataract,  at  about  nine 
feet  in  lYOO  years,  at  Thebes  about  seven,  and  less  still  in  Lower 
Egypt ;  while  at  the  mouths  of  the  river,  where,  according  to 
the  theories  above  noticed,  the  land  should  be  constantly  ad- 
vancing into  the  sea,  no  increase  is  perceptible.  It  would  seem, 
indeed,  that  the  underlying  rocks  are  gradually  subsiding,  while 
those  above  the  head  of  the  Red  Sea  are  rising. 

The  country  thus  defined  as  watered  by  the  Nile,  lies  between 
24°  r  and  31°  37'  of  N.  latitude,  and  between  27°  13'  and  34°  12' 
of  E.  longitude.  Its  length,  along  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  up  to 
the  first  cataract,  is  about  500  miles,  its  breadth  in  the  valley 
averages  about  seven  ;  but  the  coast-line  of  the  Delta,  though  its 
boundaries  are  somewhat  indefinite,  extends  over  about  250 
miles.*  The  whole  area  is  about  115,000  geographical  square 
miles,  of  which  about  9600  are  within  reach  of  the  fertilizing  in- 
undation, and  5600  are  under  cultivation.  But  in  ancient  times 
this  area  was  greatly  extended  by  a  complete  system  of  irriga- 
tion. Only  second  in  importance  to  the  fertilizing  power  of  the 
river  was  the  abundance  of  its  fish,  which  were  carefully  pre- 
served in  great  ponds,  connected  with  the  river  by  conduits  ;  but 
these  works  have  also  fallen  into  decay,  and  the  fisheries  have 
dwindled  away  as  was  predicted  by  Isaiah  (xix.  8,  10).  Nor  has 
his  prophecy  been  less  literally  fulfilled  in  the  comparative  dis- 
appearance, except  in  the  marshes  of  the  Delta,  of  the  abundant 
vegetation  of  the  river,  the  reeds  that  fringed  its  banks,  and  the 
lotus  and  other  beautiful  water-plants  that  floated  on  its  surface. 
The  famous  papyrus,  especially,  after  serving  the  old  inhabitants 
for  innumerable  uses,  including  boat-building,  and  having  fur- 
nished both  to  them  and  the  Ptolemies  that  great  material  of  lit- 
erature, which  still  gives  its  name  to  a  dilferent  substance,  is  now 
almost  extinct,  llie  land  abounded  with  gardens,  or  orchards,  and 
vineyards  ;  and  we  still  see  on  the  monuments  all  the  processes  of 
gathering  the  fruit  and  making  the  wine.  The  "  cucumbers,  mel- 
ons, leeks,  onions,  and  garlic,"  for  which  the  Israelites  longed  in 

*  lu  political  geograph)',  Egypt  had  a  far  wider  extent,  including  the  Arabian 
Desert  to  the  lied  Sea,  and  much  of  the  liibyan  Desert  to  the  West.  The  three  chief 
oases  of  the  later  were  occupied  by  the  Egyptians ;  and  that  of  Ammon  in  particular 
(now  the  Oasis  of  Smah),  was  the  chief  seat  of  the  worship  of  the  great  national  deity 
.from  whom  it  takes  its  name. 


RELATIONS  OF  EGYPT  TO  HER  NEIGHBOURS.      77 

the  wilderness,  were  but  a  few  of  the  esculent  vegetables  and  herbs 
of  Egypt.  Its  cereal  products  have  made  it  a  chief  granary  of 
the  world,  ever  since  the  days  w^hen  Abraham  took  refuge  in  it 
from  famine,  and  Jacob  heard  that  there  was  com  in  Egypt. 

To  this  exuberant  fertility  Egypt  added  the  advantage  of  a 
position  at  the  very  confluence  of  the  great  lines  of  traflic  between 
the  east  and  the  west,  by  the  isthmus  of  Suez  on  the  land,  and  by 
the  Mediterranean  and  Red  Seas  on  the  water.  Long  after  the 
glories  of  its  old  monarchy  had  decayed  under  the  domination  of 
Persia,  Alexander  saw  this  vast  advantage,  and  fixed  the  commer- 
cial capital  of  his  empire  at  Alexandria.  And,  in  our  own  times, 
though  the  stream  of  oriental  commerce  has  long  been  diverted 
into  the  route  round  the  Cape,  the  command  of  the  shorter  tran- 
sit through  Egypt  has  risen  to  a  political  question  of  the  first 
magnitude.  We  have  already  spoken  of  the  defensible  position 
of  Egypt.  On  the  side  where  it  lay  most  open  to  the  upper  val- 
ley of  the  Nile,  security  was  obtained  by  conquest,  and  the  part 
of  Ethiopia  immediately  to  the  south  was  almost  always  a  de- 
pendency of  Egypt,  governed  by  a  viceroy  with  the  title  of  the 
"  Prince  of  Kesh  (Cush),"  There  were,  however,  times  when  the 
rival  kings  of  Meroo,  still  further  to  the  south,  obtained  the 
mastery  of  Upper  Egypt ;  but  their  rule  was  rather  a  change  of 
dynasty,  than  a  foreign  conquest.  The  wild  tribes  of  the  deserts 
which  isolated  Egypt  on  the  west  are  constantly  seen  on  the 
monuments  either  as  captives,  tributaries,  or  mercenaries.  From 
the  like  evidence  we  learn  that  the  power  of  the  Pharaohs  reached 
as  far  as  the  negro  tribes,  but  probably  only  in  the  form  of  preda- 
tory incursions  to  obtain  slaves.  The  Arabian  tribes  of  the 
eastern  deserts  appear  to  have  generally  maintained  their  inde- 
pendence ;  but  the  peninsula  of  Mount  Sinai  belonged  to  the 
kings  of  the  Fourth,  Sixth,  and  later  Dynasties,  who  engraved 
records  of  their  Asiatic  conquests  on  its  rocks.  Foreigners  not 
within  the  reach  of  conquest  were  treated  upon  a  jealous  system 
of  exclusion,  and  it  was  not  till  a  late  period  that  they  were  al- 
lowed a  single  port  on  the  Mediterranean.  Even  when  hospitably 
received,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Israelites,  they  were  only  permitted 
to  settle  in  a  border  district.  This  exclusiveness  arose  partly  from 
a  repugnance  towards  other  races,  and  partly  from  the  resolution 
to  preserve  the  national  character  and  habits  uncontaminated. 

Egypt  already  possessed  a  powerful  and  wealthy  court  when 
Abram  was  driven  into  the  land  by  a  famine  in  Canaan.  But  the 
origin  of  that  monarchy,  and  of  the  elaborate  system  of  civiliza- 


78  THE  HISTORY  OF  EGYPT.  [Chap.  VI. 

tion,  religion,  and  government,  that  flonrished  under  it,  is  lost  in 
the  furthest  remoteness  of  antiquity.  We  have  already  had  occa- 
sion to  notice  the  Scriptural  evidence,  from  which  we  learn  little 
more  than  that  the  original  Egyptians,  the  people  of  Mizraim, 
were  one  of  the  oldest  Ilamitic  races,  and  closely  kindred  to  the 
Cushites  of  Ethiopia.  The  theory,  started  by  Diodorus  Siculus, 
and  recently  maintained  by  H^eren,  that  the  course  of  civiliza- 
tion was  do\\Ti  the  Nile,  from  Ethiopia  to  Egypt,  is  now  de- 
servedly rejected.  The  monuments  of  Nubia,  instead  of  being 
the  first  rude  efforts  of  the  art  afterwards  developed  in  Egypt, 
are  the  debased  products  of  that  art  in  its  decline.  The  thorough 
domination  of  the  priestly  caste  in  the  kingdom  of  Meroe,  which 
is  cited  as  the  original  type  of  Egyptian  institutions,  admits  of 
another  explanation. 

The  materials  for  the  most  ancient  history  of  Egypt  are :  first, 
the  narratives  in  the  books  of  Genesis  and  Exodus  ;  next,  the  in- 
formation obtained  in  the  country  by  the  Greek  travellers  and 
historians, —  Herodotus  in  the  fifth  century  b.c,  and  Diodorus 
Siculus  in  the  first,  with  many  notices  in  the  other  classical 
writers.  But  in  addition  to  these  foreign  testimonies,  we  have  a 
large  body  of  native  sources  of  information.  These  are  of  two 
kinds, — written  documents  and  inscribed  monuments.  Of  the  for- 
mer, we  have  now  chiefly  secondary,  but  still  invaluable  records ; 
the  latter  stand  where  they  were  first  engraved,  the  materials  for 
a  harvest  of  which  we  have  only  reaped  the  first-fruits.  Wliile 
the  invention  of  the  title  "  Egyptologers  "  proves  the  importance 
of  this  field  of  study,  it  is  somewhat  discouraging  to  observe  how 
few  positive  results  have  been  gained  by  their  labours  since  the 
great  discovery  by  which  ChampoUion  and  Young  made  hiero- 
glyphics legible ;  but  it  is  no  small  gain  to  have  obtained  the  key. 
And  even  if  further  researches  should  disappoint  our  hopes,  there 
remains  a  mass  of  records  which  it  needs  no  learning  to  decipher ; 
the  pictures  of  wars,  conquests,  and  public  ceremonials,  of  agri- 
culture, industry  and  domestic  life,  which  are  of  far  greater  value 
than  the  names  and  dates  of  kings  and  dynasties. 

Our  space  will  not  permit  more  than  the  briefest  description 
of  the  Egyptian  hieroglyphics  and  other  forms  of  writing,  in 
which,  as  also  in  the  cuneiform  inscriptions,  we  clearly  trace  the 
successive  stages  in  the  invention  of  the  art  of  writing.  Three 
forms  of  writing  are  found  on  the  Egyptian  monuments  and  pa- 
pyri. The  first  are  the  Hieroglyphics  (i.e.  sacred  engravings),  so 
called  from  an  idea,  not  strictly  correct,  that  the  knowledge 


EGYPTIAN  FORMS   OF  WRITINa.  79 

of  them  was  confined  to  the  priests.  The  hieroglyx^hic  characters 
are  pictures  of  objects  separately  and  distinctly  defined ;  and 
representing,  in  their  various  uses,  the  earliest  stages  in  the  in- 
vention of  writing.  As  symbols^  they  are  used  in  three  ways : 
first,  in  direct  imitation,  as  when  a  circle  is  put  for  the  sun,  a 
crescent  for  the  moon,  a  male  figure  for  man,  a  female  figure  for 
woman,  and  the  two  together  for  manMnd  ',  these  figures  are 
called  "  iconographic  "  or  "  ideographic."  Their  second  use  is 
"  anaglyphic"  or  "tropical,"  in  which  the  meaning  is  conveyed 
figuratively,  as  a  leg  in  a  trap  for  deceit,  a  youth  with  a  finger  to 
his  mouth  for  an  infant.  Thirdly,  there  is  the  allegorical  or 
enigmatic  form,  in  which  the  object  intended  to  be  expressed  is 
represented  by  another  which  is  used  as  its  conventional  emblem ; 
as  two  water-plants  of  slightly  difierent  forms  for  Upper  and 
Lower  Egypt.  But  the  hieroglyphics  are  also  used  as  "  Kyrio- 
logic,"  or  phonetic  signs,  the  initial  letters  of  theii*  primitive 
meanings  standing  for  those  of  other  words,  and  for  the  words 
themselves,  having  the  same  initials.  This  is  the  second  stage  in 
the  invention  of  vrriting ;  but  the  signs  do  not  seem  to  have 
reached  the  last,  or  alphabetic  stage. 

The  second  form  of  writing  was  the  "  Hieratic,"  in  which  the 
hieroglyphic  symbols  become  characters  in  a  sort  of  ranning  hand, 
with  only  a  distant  resemblance  to  their  original  form.  This  form 
of  writing  was  really,  as  its  name  implies,  confined  to  the  priests, 
in  whose  hands  it  became  so  conventional,  that  the  characters  often 
bear  less  resemblance  to  the  original  objects  than  in  the  third 
form.     Most  of  the  existing  papyri  are  written  in  this  character. 

The  third  form  is  the  "  Demotic  "  {pojpular)  or  "  Enchorial  " 
{of  the  country),  in  which  the  language  of  the  common  people 
was  written.  It  was,  excei')t  in  the  few  cases  just  noticed,  a  still 
more  cursive  modification  of  the  hieroglyphics  than  in  the  hieratic 
writing.  It  was  used  for  records  of  civil  transactions  during  the 
Ptolemaic  period,  and  continued  in  use  to  the  third  or  fourth 
century  of  our  era. 

The  existence  of  a  trilingual  inscription  in  hieroglyphical, 
enchorial,  and  Greek  characters — being  a  decree  of  the  priests  of 
Memphis  in  honor  of  Ptolemy  Y.,  Epiphanes  (about  b.c.  196) — 
on  the  celebrated  "  Rosetta  Stone,"  now  in  the  British  Museum, 
gave  the  clue  by  which  Young  and  Champollion  were  guided  in- 
dependently to  the  principles  of  hieroglyphic  interpretation ;  a 
discovery  which  has  opened  up  to  us  the  contemporary  records 
of  every  period  of  Egypt's  history. 


80  THE  HISTORY  OF  EGYPT.  [Chap.  Vt 

Among  the  liieroglypliic  signs  on  momiments  of  a  date  sup- 
posed to  exceed  200  years  before  tlie  Christian  era,  are  those  for 
the  papyrus  and  the  pen  and  ink,  proving  that  writing,  already 
employed  in  the  form  of  engraving  upon  stone,  had  now  reached 
a  foi-m  fit  for  the  multii:)lication  of  books.  We  are  assured  by 
Diodorus  Siculus  that  the  Egyptian  priests  had  preserved  the 
records  of  all  their  kings  from  the  earliest  ages,  not  merely  in  the 
form  of  dry  annals,  but  with  descriptions  of  their  personal  charac- 
ters and  exploits ;  and  Herodotus  says  that  the  priests  showed 
him  a  papyrus  with  the  names  of  330  kings  from  Menes  to 
Moeris ;  we  know  too  that  their  great  temples  had  libraries  of 
sacred  books.  Of  such  records  we  have  still  a  specimen  in  the 
form  of  a  hieratic  papyrus,  of  the  Egyptian  kings,  now  in  the 
Museum  of  Turin.*  Many  portions  of  the  "  Ritual  of  the  Dead  " 
and  other  sacred  books  on  papyrus  are  in  the  British  Museum. 
When  the  mass  of  these  records  themselves  was  lost  we  cannot 
tell,  but  they  were  doubtless  in  existence  at  the  time  of  Alexan- 
der's conquest,  and  furnished  materials  for  the  works  which  were 
written  to  gratify  the  curiosity  of  the  new  Greek  sovereigns  and 
the  pride  of  the  Egyptian  priests.  The  first  and  most  important 
of  these  works  was  the  "  History  of  Egypt,"  by  Manetho,  a  priest 
of  Sebennytus,  under  Ptolemy  I.,  at  the  beginning  of  the  third 
century  before  Christ.  Though  Manetho's  history  has  perished, 
like  the  sacred  books  from  which  he  compiled  it,  the  chronologers 
Eusebius  and  Julius  Africanus  have  preserved  his  list  of  the 
thirty  dynasties  who  reigned  in  Egypt.  Tliis  list  has  been  con- 
firmed to  a  great  extent  by  the  hieroglyphic  inscriptions,  but  it 
has  been  greatly  interpolated,  and  even  if  these  corruptions  could 
be  removed,  great  difficulties  would  remain. 

We  do  not  feel  it  necessary  to  enter  into  the  controversy 
between  the  Egyptologers  and  their  opponents,  respecting  the 
historical  value  of  Manetho's  list.  Feeling  unable  to  reject  them 
altogether,  without  leaving  a  blank  in  the  place  of  that  very 
ancient  history  which  is  attested  both  by  Scripture  and  the  monu- 
ments, we  cannot  accept  the  dictum  of  the  one  party,  that  "  Egyp- 
tian history  begins  with  Psammetichus,"  however  Ave  may  be 
staggered  by  the  assertion,  on  the  other  side,  that :  "  Wliereas, 
in  the  annals  of  other  ancient  nations  a  time  of  tradition  inter- 
venes between  that  of  myths  and  that  of  facts,  no  such  period 
of  transition  is  found  in  the  Egyptian  records,  where  we  find 

*  Edited  in  facsimile  by  Sir  Gardner  Wilkinson,  London,  1851. 


THE  DYNASTIES   OF  MAKETHO.  81 

pure  fiction  immediately  followed  by  accurate  history."  We 
prefer  to  give  tlie  history  as  told  by  the  ancient  authors  and  by 
the  most  diligent  modem  students  of  the  monuments,  leaving 
its  value  to  be  settled  by  criticism,  based  on  more  extensive 
knowledge  than  we  have  yet  acr,^ aired.  The  statements  we  pro- 
ceed to  make  must  therefore  be  understood,  not  only  as  the  mere 
results  of  enquiries  too  elaborate  for  us  to  trouble  the  reader  with, 
but  as  results  that  only  express  a  certain  state  of  opinion,  which 
cannot  be  regarded  as  placed  beyond  dispute.*  A  minor  difficul- 
ty is  one  of  form.  We  scarcely  tread  on  safe  ground,  either  his- 
torical or  chronological,  till  the  accession  of  the  Eighteenth  Dy- 
nasty, under  whose  rule  Egypt  was  finally  united,  and  began  the 
most  brilliant  period  of  her  history.  It  is  here  that  the  dynasties 
first  become  continuous.  To  suppose  them  so  from  the  begin- 
ning, would  place  their  commencement  as  early  asB.c.  5000.  Not 
only  is  this  at  variance  with  the  monuments,  but  there  is  internal 
evidence  that  some  of  the  dynasties  were  contemporaneous  ;  nay 
more,  it  has  been  recently  discovered  that  successive  kings  of  the 
same  dynasty  reigned  in  part  together.  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt 
were  for  a  long  period  distinct  kingdoms  ;  and  smaller  kingdoms 
existed  in  different  parts  of  the  country,  with  capitals  at  This, 
Memphis,  Elephantine,  Heracleopolis,  Thebes,  and  Xois.  Of 
the  seventeen  dynasties  that  occupied  this  interval  from  the  era 
of  Menes,  the  following  table  exhibits  an  arrangement,  proposed 
by  Mr.  Lane  in  1830,  approved  by  the  most  eminent  Egypto- 
logers, and  since  confirmed  in  many  points  by  the  monuments. 

However  interesting  as  a  field  for  speculative  research,  tlie 
space  occupied  by  these  seventeen  dynasties  would  scarcely  claim 
the  notice  of  the  historian,  but  for  its  connexion  with  the  sacred 
history,  and  for  those  wondrous  monuments  of  the  early  Pharaohs, 
the  Pyramids  at  Gliizeh  near  the  ancient  Memphis. 

The  traditional  history  of  Egypt,  which  we  read  in  Herodotus 
and  Diodorus,  may  be  accepted  as  a  fair  report,  by  trutliful  en- 
quirers, of  what  it  was  the  pleasure  of  the  priests  to  tell  them,  al- 
lowance being  made  for  misunderstandings.  But  it  is  clear  that 
the  priests  were  far  more  ready  to  amuse  the  eager  enquirer  with 
marvellous  tales,  than  to  communicate  the  contents  of  their  sacred 
books.  These  were  first  unfolded  by  Manetho,  with  whose  records 
the  stories  of  Herodotus  and  Diodorus  can  seldom  be  brought 
into  agreement ;  and  the  evidence  of  the  monuments  is  almost 
always  in  confirmation  of  Manetho. 

*  See  further  the  note  on  Egyptian  Chronology  at  the  end  of  the  chapter. 
VOL,  I. — 6 


Si 


THE  HISTORY  OF  EGYPT. 


[Chai-.  VL 


MR.  LANE'S  TABLE  OF  THE  FIRST  SEVENTEEN  DYNASTIES. 


B.  0. 

2700 

2C00 
2500 
2400 
2300 
2200 

aioo 

2000 
1900 
1800 
1700 
1600 
1800 

TQINITBS. 

I.  '2717 
(IMR  of 

Mc-ces). 

MEM- 
PUITE8. 

III.  Cir.  2650. 

ELEPHAN- 
TINITES. 

II.  cir.  2470. 

IV.  Cir.  24-H). 

V.  cir.  2«0. 

2352.  Date  in 
reign  of 
Surplilscs. 

HERACLEO- 
P0LITE8. 

DI03- 
P0LITE8. 

VI.  cir.  2200. 

ir.  cir.  AOO. 

XI.  cir.  2200. 

X0ITE8. 

8HEPHEED8. 

cir.  S081. 

Abraham 

visits  Egypt. 

XII.cir.2080. 
2005.  Date  in 

reign  of 
Amenemba 

II. 

1986.  Date  in 

reign  of 

Sesertesea 

III.? 

XIV.  c.  2080. 

XV.  cir.2080. 

XVI.  cir. 

2080. 

XIII.  cir. 
1920. 

. 

1876.  Joseph 
goTcrnor. 

1867.  Jacob 

goes  into 

EgJPt- 

Vir.cir.lSOO. 
VIII.  0.1800. 

(215  years.) 

X.  cir.  1750. 

1652.EzodU9. 

XVII.  cir. 
1680. 

XVIII.  cir. 
1525. 

1 1 

THE  DIVINE  RULERS  OF  EGYPT.  83 

All  agreed  in  representing  the  gods,  demigods,  heroes,  and 
manes  (or  sonls  of  the  departed)  as  having  reigned  in  Egypt  for 
many  ages  before  any  dynasty  of  mortals  ;  Manetho  says  for 
25,900  years.  This  legend  seems  not  to  have  been  the  fruit 
merely  of  national  pride,  but  it  embodied  the  first  principles  of 
their  religious  faith.  They  referred  the  creation  and  government 
of  the  world  to  the  will  of  the  one  supreme  God,  of  whom  they 
permitted  themselves  no  visible  representation,  symbol,  or  form 
of  worship,  but  adored  Him  "  in  silence."  But  the  infinitely 
varied  manifestations  of  this  one  divine  essence,  when  put  forth 
in  action,  moral  and  intellectual  as  well  as  material,  came  to  be 
regarded  as  distinct  deities.  Hence  the  Egyptian  Pantheon  em- 
braced names  and  forms,  in  which  nearly  every  other  people 
recognized  the  objects  of  their  own  religion,  from  the  Sabaeism 
of  the  Chaldees  and  the  elemental  worship  of  the  Magians,  to  the 
degraded  Fetishism  of  the  Nigritian  races.  The  adoration  of 
the  heavenly  bodies,  the  deification  of  elemental  powers,  and 
the  elaborate  system  of  animal  worship,  seem  to  have  sprung 
alike  from  the  common  source  of  Pantheism.  How  far  these 
and  other  developments  of  that  first  principle  were  aided  by 
the  influence  of  other  nations,  we  need  not  stay  to  enquire ; 
nor  can  we  attempt  a  complete  account  of  the  Egyptian  re- 
ligion.* 

First  of  the  divine  rulers  of  Egypt  was  placed  Ptah,  the  Cre- 
ator, the  personification  of  the  all-working  powers  of  fire,  and 
hence  identified  by  the  Greeks  with  their  Ilephcestus,  the  Latin 
Yulcan.  But  the  metaphysical  element,  which  accompanied  and 
perhaps  preceded  the  physical,  is  seen  in  the  constant  Association 
of  the  symbol  of  Truth  with  this  deity.  The  next  who  reigned 
was  the  Sun  (Helios),  the  Egyptian  Ra,  whose  worship  was 
maintained  from  the  earliest  times  at  On  (Heliopolis)  in  Lower 
Egypt.  The  wife  of  Joseph  was  the  daughter  of  a  priest  of  On. 
The  name  of  the  third  in  Manetho,  Agathodoemon,  points  to  an 
abstract  principle,  and  is  identified  by  Egyptologers  either  with 
Har-Hat  or  with  Num,  Nu,  or  Nef,  a  deity  whose  emblems  are 
the  boat  and  asp,  and  who  is  said  to  represent  the  vital  principle 
generated  from  the  waters.  The  fourth  is  Chronos  or  Saturn, 
See,  the  personification  of  Time,  who,  as  in  the  classical  mytho- 

*  For  this,  and  all  other  matters  falling  within  the  province  of  the  national  anti- 
quities, the  reader  is  referred  to  the  various  modern  works  on  Egypt,  especially  those 
of  Sir  J.  G.  Wilkinson,  and  Mr.  Poole's  article  "  Egypt"  in  the  Encyclopaedia  Britan- 
niea,  last  edition. 


84  THE  HISTORY   OF  EGYPT.  [Chap.  VI. 

logies,  stands  between  the  elemental  and  creative  powers  and 
those  by  whom  the  world  is  governed.  These  latter  were  the 
children  of  Seb  and  Netpe  (Rhea) ;  their  names  were  Osiris, 
Seth,  Aroeris,  Isis,  and  Nepthys.  The  conflict  of  good  and  evil, 
in  the  persons  of  Osiris  and  Setli  (Typhon),  fills  -a  large  space  in 
the  later  Egyptian  mythology ;  but  it  should  be  carefully  ob- 
Berved,  that  Sin  was  not  necessarily  included  in  the  Evil  origin- 
ally typified  by  Typhon.  Thus,  in  the  list  of  the  divine  kings, 
Seb  is  succeeded  by  Osiris,  the  god  who  appeared  on  earth  in 
human  form,  to  manifest  and  work  all  good  for  men,  and,  hav- 
ing been  put  to  death  by  the  malice  of  the  evil  being,  was  raised 
again  to  life,  and  became  the  judge  of  souls  in  the  world  beyond 
the  grave.  Osiris  and  his  wife  Isis  are  said  by  Herodotus  to 
have  been  the  only  gods  worshipped  throughout  all  Egypt.  He 
was  succeeded  by  the  usurper  Typhon,  who  was  in  his  turn  slain 
by  Isis,  with  the  assistance  of  her  son  Horus,  the  seventh  of  these 
divine  rulers.  Horus,  whom  the  Greeks  identified  with  Apollo, 
is  the  manifestation  of  his  father's  virtues  in  youthful  energy  and 
beauty,  who  restores  order  upon  the  earth,  and  begins  a  new  era 
of  truth  and  justice.  After  him  the  different  lists  derived  from 
Manetho  give  different  names,  which  cannot  here  be  pursued  in 
detail ;  and  the  whole  series  of  divine  dynasties  ends  with  a 
secjond  Horus.  In  some  forms  of  the  mythology  the  first  Horus 
is  the  brother,  the  second  the  son  of  Osiris.  This  outline  will 
sufficiently  show  that  in  the  succession  of  divine  rulers  we  have 
an  embodiment  of  the  Egyptian  belief  concerning  the  primeval 
order  of  creation  and  providence. 

All  the  authorities  are  agreed  in  placing  at  the  head  of  the 
First  Dynasty  of  mortals,  Menes,  or  Men,  as  his  name  is  read 
in  the  Turin  papyrus,  which  contains  a  list  of  the  Egyptian  kings 
in  the  hieratic  character.  His  name  is  also  found  in  hiero- 
glyphics, in  the  form  Menee,  in  the  Rameseum  at  El-Kurnch. 
Herodotus  aftects  to  give  particulars  of  his  works  :  the  dyke  that 
protected  Memphis  from  the  inundation,  and  the  change  of  the 
course  of  the  Nile  from  the  edge  of  the  Libyan  hills  to  the  mid- 
dle of  the  valley.  But  how  much  of  the  mythical  element  Avas 
mingled  with  the  traditions  of  that  remote  period  is  shown  by  the 
historian's  assertion,  that  all  Egypt,  except  the  Thebaic  nome, 
was  then  a  marsh,  from  Avhich  he  proceeds  to  calculate  the  my- 
riads of  yeai-s  required  for  the  deposit  of  the  Delta.  The  very 
name  of  Mencs  suggests  a  mythical  impersonation  of  the  human 
race,  like  the  Indian  Menu,  the  Greek  Minvas  and  Minos,  the 


B.C.  2717?]  FIRST  AND   SECOND   DYNASTIES.  85 

Etruscan  Menerfa,  and  the  German  Mannus.  Other  traditions 
state  that  Menes  built  the  great  temple  of  Ptah  at  Memphis, 
that  he  extended  his  conquests  into  Ethiopia,  and  was  killed  by  a 
hippopotamus,  and  that  his  memory  was  devoted  to  a  curse  be- 
cause he  induced  the  Egyptians  to  change  their  earlier  and  simjDler 
mode  of  life.  Amidst  these  legends  we  can  trace  as  a  clear  fact 
the  great  antiquity  of  Memphis  as  the  seat  of  the  earliest  Egyp- 
tian monarchy ;  while  the  derivation  of  Menes  from  This  (the 
later  Abydos)  in  the  Thebaid,  accounts  for  the  precedence  always 
given  to  Upper  Egypt  on  the  monuments.*  It  would  seem,  then, 
that  an  older  monarchy  even  than  that  of  Memphis  flourished  in 
Upper  Egypt,  with  its  capital  at  This.  But  no  monuments  re- 
main at  This ;  and  those  of  Memphis  are  older  than  any  at 
Thebes.  Neither  Menes,  nor  his  successors  of  the  First  Dynasty, 
have  left  any  monuments,  but  his  name  appears  on  those  of  a 
much  later  date.  Of  his  successors  of  the  First  Dynasty,  who 
were  seven  in  number,  the  monuments  bear  no  record.  One  of 
them,  Athothis,  will  claim  notice  again  presently. 

The  Second  Dynasty  consisted  of  nine  Thinite  kings,  according 
to  Manetho,  who  assigns  it  a  duration  of  300  years.  The  Inonu- 
ments  appear  to  show  that  it  lasted  nearly  four  centuries,  and  was 
finally  overthrown,  with  the  Memphite  Dynasty,  by  the  invasion 
of  the  Shepherd  Kings,  about  b.  c.  2080.  The  Thinite  kingdom 
had  probably  been  long  before  eclipsed  by  the  superior  power  of 
the  Memphian  kings.  Under  the  second  king,  Manetho  places 
the  deiiication  of  the  bulls,  Apis  at  Memphis,  and  Mnevis  at 
Heliopolis,  and  of  the  goat  Mendes  at  the  city  of  the  same  name. 
The  succession  of  women  to  the  throne  is  said  to  have  been  made 
legal  under  his  successor.  This  usage  seems  to  show  the  in- 
fluence of  the  INigritian  races.  Among  the  early  sovereigns 
was  the  celebrated  queen  Nitocris  (Neitakri),  whose  cruel  re- 
venge of  her  brother's  murder  is  related  by  Herodotus.  She  is 
the  last  of  Manetho's  Sixth  Dynasty.  Another  Nitocris,  of  the 
Twenty-sixth  Dynasty,  was  about  contemporary  with  the  Baby- 
lonian queen  of  the  same  name. 

The  Thirds  Fourth,  and  Sixth  Dynasties  of  Memphite  kings 
seem  to  have  been  contemporary  with  the  First  and  Second  of 
Thinites,  as  represented  above  in  Mr.  Lane's  table.  Egyptolo- 
gers hold  the  third  to  have  been  a  dynasty  established  by  the  Tlii- 
nite  kings  at  their  newly  founded  city  of  Memphis,  the  first  king, 
Nekherophis,  being  contemporary  with  Menes.     His  successor, 

*  Some  make  Menes  a  Theban. 


86  THE  HISTORY  OF  EGYPT.  [Chap.  VL 

Tosortlms,  is  actually  identified  with  Atbothis,  the  son  of  Menes, 
by  the  common  character  of  great  medical  knowledge,  and  being 
the  first  who  built  with  hewn  stone,  in  erecting  the  palace  at 
Memphis.  A  revolt  of  the  Libyans,  and  their  submission  through 
terror  at  a  sudden  increase  of  the  moon,  is  placed  by  Manetho  in 
the  reign  of  Nekherophis. 

Tlie  eight  Memphite  kings  of  the  Fourth  Dynasty  have  left 
tlieir  own  wonderful  monuments  in  the  pyramids  of  Ghizeh.  Nor 
are  these  their  only  records.  "  Not  only  does  the  construction  of 
the  pyramids,  but  the  scenes  depicted  in  the  sculptured  tombs  of 
this  epoch,  show  that  the  Egyptians  had  the  same  habits  and  arts 
as  in  after  times ;  and  the  hieroglyphics  in  the  Great  Pyramid, 
written  in  the  cursive  character  on  the  stones  before  they  were 
taken  from  the  quarry,  prove  that  writing  had  been  long  in  use." 
"  In  the  tombs  of  the  Pyramid-period  are  represented  the  same 
fowling  and  fishing  scenes  ;  the  rearing  of  cattle  and  wild  animals 
of  the  deserts ;  the  scribes  using  the  same  kind  of  reed  for  wri- 
ting on  the  papyrus  an  inventory  of  the  estate,  which  was  to  be 
presented  to  the  owner ;  the  same  boats,  though  rigged  with  a 
double  mast,  instead  of  the  single  one  of  later  times ;  the  same 
mode  of  preparing  for  the  entertainment  of  guests ;  the  same 
introduction  of  music  and  dancing ;  the  same  trades — as  glass- 
hlowers^  cabinet-makers,  and  others — as  well  as  similar  agricul- 
tural scenes,  implements,  and  granaries.  "W"e  also  see  the  same 
costume  of  the  priests  ;  and  the  prophet,  or  Sam,  with  his  leo- 
pard's-skin  dress ;  and  the  painted  sculptures  are  both  in  relief 
and  intaglio.  And  if  some  changes  took  place,  they  were  only 
such  as  necessarily  happen  in  all  ages,  and  were  fer  less  marked 
than  in  other  countries."  *  In  one  respect,  the  art  of  this  age  is 
superior  to  that  of  the  Eighteenth  and  Nineteenth  Dynasties ; 
there  is  less  of  that  stiflf  conventional  form  which  sacred  rules  im- 
posed in  the  treatment  of  the  human  figure,  while  the  drawing  of 
other  forms  is  quite  equal  to  that  of  the  best  ages.  Thus  the  monu- 
mental history  of  Egypt  presents  the  phenomenon  of  a  total  ab- 
sence of  the  period  which  is  elsewhere  marked  by  the  first  rude 
stages  of  art  and  civilization.  Pesides  this  evidence  of  the  poli- 
tical power  of  these  Memphite  kings,  we  have  records  of  their 
dominion  in  the  peninsula  of  Mount  Sinai,  where  they  worked 
copper  mines.  Sculptures  at  AVady-el-Magharah  represent  Shura 
(Soris),  the  first  king  of  the  Fourth  Dynasty,  slaying  enemies  of 

•  Sir  J.  G.  Wilkinson,  in  Rawlinson's  Herodotus,  Book  II.  App.  chap.  viii.  vol.  ii 
op.  844,  845. 


B.C.  3352?]  THE  MEMPHIAN  KINGDOM.  87 

an  Asiatic  race.  His  name  lias  also  been  found  in  the  tombs 
near  Ghizeh,  and  in  the  quarry  marks  of  the  northern  pyramid  of 
Abou-Seir.  This  pyramid,  thus  proved  to  be  the  tomb  of  Shura, 
is  the  earliest  Egyptian  monument  which  bears  certain  evidence 
of  its  builder.  His  two  successors  bore  the  same  name,  Suphi? 
(the  Cheops  of  Herodotus) ;  the  third  king  being  distinguished 
from  the  second  by  the  exacter  appellation  of  Sensuphis  (a  broth- 
er of  Sufis) ;  their  names  on  the  monuments  are  Shufu  and  Num- 
Shufu.  That  they  reigned  in  great  part  together,  and  were  the 
joint  builders  of  the  Great  Pyramid,  is  proved — says  Sir  Gardner 
Wilkinson — "  by  the  number  of  years  ascribed  to  their  reigns  ;  * 
by  their  names  being  found  among  the  quarry  marks  on  the  blocks 
used  in  that  monument ;  by  their  being  on  the  sculptured  walls 
of  the  same  tomb  behind  the  great  P^Tamids  ;  and  by  this  pyra- 
mid having  two  funereal  chambers,  one  for  each  king,  rather  than 
as  generally  supposed,  for  the  king  and  queen."  What  is  known 
further  of  their  reigns  may  be  best  described  in  the  words  of  Mr. 
Poole  : — "  The  names  of  both  the  Suphises  occur  among  the  rock 
inscriptions  of  Wady-el-Magharah  in  the  peninsula  of  Sinai,  where 
the  second  of  them,  or  Num-Shufu,  is  represented  slaying  a  for- 
eigner. The  military  expeditions  of  the  Egyptians,  however,  at 
this  period,  were  probably  of  little  importance,  and  designed  to 
repress  the  nomad  tribes,  which  have  at  all  times  infested  the 
eastern  and  other  borders  of  Egypt,  and  to  maintain  the  posses- 
sions beyond  these  borders.  The  Mempliite  Pharaohs  were  rather 
celebrated  for  the  arts  of  peace,  and  for  the  care  with  which  they 
promoted  the  interests  of  literature  and  science.  Of  Suphis  I. 
Manetho  writes  that  he  was  arrogant  towards  the  gods,  but,  re- 
penting, wrote  the  Sacred  Book.  This  seems  to  agree  well 
with  what  Herodotus  and  Diodorus  relate  of  the  impiety  and  cru- 
elty of  the  king  who  built  the  Great  Pyramid  ;  but  if  we  suppose 
that  he  was  arrogant  towards  the  priests,  we  find  a  sufficient  cause 
for  the  ascription  to  him  of  this  character  so  ill  according  with  the 
prosperity  and  peacefiilness  of  his  time,  as  shown  by  the  monu- 
ments. The  power  of  the  king  or  kings  is  evidenced  by  the 
magnitude  of  the  Great  Pyramid,  and  the  costly  manner  of  its 
construction ;  the  safety  of  the  kingdom,  by  no  soldiers  being 
represented  in  the  sculptures,  and  the  general  custom  of  going 
unarmed,  common  to  the  great  and  small ;  the  wealth  of  the 
subjects,  by  the  scenes  pourtrayed  uj)on  the  walls  of  their  tombs ; 

*  For  two  brothers  could  not  have  reigned  succesaively  sixty-three  and  sixty-six 
years.     The  latter  number  implies  that  Suphis  II.  survived  his  brother. 


88  THE  HISTORY  OF  EGYPT.  [Chap.  VI. 

and  the  state  of  science  and  art,  by  the  construction  of  monuments, 
gigantic  in  size,  of  materials  many  of  which  were  transported  from 
a  great  distance,  and  fitted  together  witli  an  accuracy  tliat  has 
never  been  excelled  ;  as  well  as  by  the  astronomical  and  other 
knowledge  of  which  evidence  is  found  in  the  contemporary  in- 
scriptions." 

The  fame  of  the  two  Suphises  as  pyramid  builders,  is  shared 
by  their  successor,  Men-ka-re,  the  Mencheres  of  Manetho,  and 
Mycerinus  of  Herodotus,  whose  name  is  painted  on  the  roof  of 
the  chamber  of  one  of  the  smaller  pp-amids  near  the  Great  Pyra- 
mid ;  but  part  of  his  mummy  case  now  in  the  British  Museimi, 
and  bearing  his  name,  was  found  in  the  "  Third  Pyramid,"  of 
which  he  was  the  builder.  Manetho  assigns  this  pyramid  to  Queen 
Nitocris,  the  last  of  the  Sixth  Dynasty,  who  probably  enlarged 
it,  and  made  it  her  own  sepulchre,  as  it  contains  two  passages 
and  chambers,  the  older  i:>assage  being  built  over  in  extending 
the  structure.  The  "  Second  Pyramid,"  is  ascribed  by  Herodotus 
to  Cephren,  the  brother  and  successor  of  Cheops,  and  uncle  to 
Mycerinus.  By  these  tokens,  Cephren  should  corresj^ond  to  the 
second  Suphis  of  Manetho  ;  but  besides  the  improbability  of  two 
brothers  achieving  two  such  enormous  works,  there  is  no  likeness 
in  the  names.  There  is  however,  in  the  Fifth  Dynasty,  a  Shaf-ra 
(Sephres),  who  may  perhaps  answer  to  Cephren,  and  may  have 
completed  the  work  of  which  the  foundation  had  been  laid  by  the 
second  Suphis  in  emulation  of  his  brother.  Nothing  is  known 
of  the  remaining  four  kings  of  this  mighty  dynasty.  Their  whole 
rule  seems  to  have  somewhat  exceeded  two  hundred  years.  We 
shall  have  presently  to  speak  further  of  their  works. 

The  Sixth  Dynasty  succeeded  the  Fourth  at  Memphis,  about 
B.C.  2200,  and  lasted  about  a  century  and  a  half.  Only  two  of  its 
six  sovereigns  require  mention.  Papa,  or  Phiops,  is  said  by  Ma- 
netho to  have  become  king  at  six  years  of  age,  and  to  have  com- 
pleted his  hundredth  year.  Some  confirmation  of  the  length  of 
his  reign  is  found  on  his  monuments,  the  number  of  which  through 
all  Egypt  attests  his  great  power.  The  Queen  Nitocris  of  whom 
we  have  already  had  occasion  to  speak,  appears  in  the  Turin  pa- 
pyrus as  Ncet-akar-tee,  which  is  said  to  signify  Neith  (Minerva) 
the  Yictorious.  With  her  the  dynasty  closed,  being  overthrown 
by  Shepherd  Kings,  who  fixed  their  capital  at  Memphis. 

The  Fifth  Dynasty,  of  nine  (or  as  Eusebius  has  it,  thirty-one) 
Elephantine  kings,  began  about  the  same  time  as  the  Fourth,  and 
appears  to  have  lasted  little  less  than  600  years.     At  first  sight  it 


B.C.  2200  ?  ]  OTHER  EARLY  DYNASTIES.  89 

appears  improbable  that  this  dynasty  ruled  at  Elephantine,  on  the 
extreme  south  border  of  Upper  Egypt ;  and  the  association  of  their 
names  in  the  Memphian  tombs  with  those  of  the  Fourth  Dynasty 
seems  to  imply  that  their  capital  was  some  place  of  the  same  name 
in  Lower  Egypt.  Bat  if  they  were  a  branch  of  the  other  reigning 
family,  we  can  easily  understand  their  using  the  same  sepulchres, 
however  distant ;  and  the  length  of  time  that  their  rule  survived 
the  invasion  of  the  Shepherds,  is  in  accordance  with  the  more  ob- 
vious view.  Their  last  king,  Unas  (Ormos,  in  Manetho)  is  knov-m 
by  an  inscription  to  have  been  contemporary  with  Assa,  the  iifth 
king  of  the  Fifteenth  Dynasty  (of  Shepherds)  at  Memphis.  The 
only  memorable  sovereign  of  this  dynasty  is  Shaf-ra  or  Khaf-ra, 
the  Sephres  of  Manetho,  and  probably,  as  wc  have  seen,  the 
Cephren  or  Kephren  to  whom  Herodotus  and  Diodorus  assign 
the  Second  Pyramid.  The  tombs  around  the  Pyramids  bear  the 
names  of  great  numbers  of  persons  of  rank  belonging  to  his  reign. 
The  Ninth  Dynasty  was  founded  at  Heracleopolis,  about  the 
same  time  that  the  Sixth  ruled  at  Memphis,  soon  after  b.c.  2200. 
Of  its  nineteen  kings,  to  whom  he  assigns  409  years,  Manetho 
only  mentions  the  first  as  the  most  cruel  of  all  before  him.  Six  of 
their  names  are  found  in  hieroglyphic  inscriptions,  which  make  it 
probable  that  they  became  vassals  to  the  pow^erful  Diospolites  of 
the  Tw^elfth  Dynasty.  The  Tenth  (Heracleopolite)  Dynasty^  as  well 
as  a  large  portion  of  the  Ninth,  falls  in  the  time  of  the  Shepherds. 
The  Eleventh  Dynasty  founded  the  great  kingdom  of  Diospolis, 
or  Thebes,  which  was  destined  to  unite  all  Egypt  under  its  sway, 
about  the  same  year,  e.g.  2200.  Of  its  sixteen  kings,  however, 
only  the  last,  Amenemha  L,  possessed  any  great  power. 

It  was  the  Ttvelfth  Dynasty  that  really  established  the  great 
Diospolite  kingdom,  at  a  time  most  critical  for  Egypt.  Under  the 
preceding  dynasties,  which  appear  to  have  been  for  the  most  part 
offshoots  of  one  reigning  family,  the  land  had  enjoyed  a  long  season 
of  repose.  But  just  about  the  time  of  the  accession  of  the  Twelfth 
Dynasty,  it  was  overrun  by  that  great  assault  of  a  foreign  race, 
which,  under  the  name  of  the  invasion  of  the  Ilyksos,  or  Shepherd 
Kings,  forms  the  great  catastrophe  of  the  early  Egyi3tian  history. 
These  foreigners  established  their  power  for  about  500  years,  first 
at  Memphis,  and  afterwards  over  all  Egypt,  except  perhaps  the 
Thebaid,  by  whose  kings  of  the  Eighteenth  Dynasty  they  were 
ultimately  expelled.  The  period  of  their  rule  is  especially  inter- 
esting on  the  supposition  that  it  includes  all  the  relations  of  the 
Hebrew  patriarchs  with  Egypt,  from  the  journey  of  Abraham 


90  THE  HISTORY  OF  EGYPT.  [Chap.  VI. 

to  escape  the  famine,  down  to  the  great  deliverance  of  the 
Exodus. 

Before  we  pass  on  to  these  events,  or  to  the  exploits  of  the 
Diospolite  kings  of  the  Twelfth  and  Thirteenth  Dynasties,  we 
must  look  hack  upon  the  state  of  Egypt  before  the  first  revolution, 
at  least  in  its  known  history.  We  have  seen,  as  we  have  proceeded, 
the  evidence  borne  by  its  monuments  to  the  high  state  of  civili- 
zation which  was  attained  at  least  as  early  as  the  Fourth  Dynas- 
ty. In  those  monuments,  in  the  relics  which  have  been  trans- 
ported to  Europe,  and  in  which  our  own  Museum  is  peculiarly 
rich,  and  in  the  faithful  transcripts  of  Eosellini,  Wilkinson,  Lep- 
sius,  and  other  labourers  in  this  field,  the  life  of  this  great  people 
is  set  before  our  eyes,  beginning  with  a  period  4000  years  ago  ; 
and  we  wonder  to  see  how  much  it  is  like  our  own.  It  is  not 
the  province  of  the  historian  to  describe  the  minute  details  of  a 
nation's  manners,  and  no  written  description  would  convey  any 
idea  of  those  of  the  Egyptians,  compared  to  what  may  be  gained 
by  a  few  hours'  inspection  of  the  objects  and  scenes  preserved  in 
the  British  Museum,  and  depicted  in  the  great  works  we  have 
just  named. 

With  the  exception  of  the  pyramids  and  tombs,  the  monu- 
ments of  the  first  eleven  dynasties  are  few\  The  British  Museum 
possesses  several  sepulchral  tablets,  and  a  coloured  wooden 
statue  found  in  a  tomb  at  Ghizeh,  certainly  one  of  the  oldest 
effigies  in  the  world.  The  use  of  wood  for  statues  in  tombs  is 
common  in  every  period  of  Egyptian  art ;  and  such  figures  seem 
always  to  have  been  painted,  like  the  efiigies  on  the  mummy 
cases.  They  are  generally  in  a  fi'eer  attitude  than  the  stone  sta- 
tues. Herodotus  mentions  the  wooden  statues  he  saw  at  Thebes, 
of  all  the  priests  from  the  earliest  ages  down  to  his  own  time. 

But  as  few  can  behold,  and  fewer  still  inspect  the  secrets  of 
those  great  monuments  of  the  early  Pharaohs  which  have  always 
been  the  wonder  of  the  world,  it  becomes  necessary  to  give  some 
account  of  the  Pj'ramids.  These,  with  the  tombs  surrounding 
them,  are  the  great  monuments  of  the  periods  of  those  "  Mem- 
phian  kings,"  whose  works  Milton  describes  as  outdone  only  by 
the  structures  reared  by  the  fallen  angels.  Their  names  very  rarely 
occur  in  the  Tliebaid,  and  then  not  on  monuments  of  their  own, 
but  in  the  tombs  of  private  persons  who  lived  during  their  reigns. 
This  should  be  carefully  borne  in  mind,  to  correct  the  vague  im- 
pression created  by  viewing  Egypt  as  a  whole,  through  the  mist  of 
remote  antiquity,  and  even  fancying  that  most  of  its  monuments 


APPROACH  TO  THE  PTRAMroS.  91 

were  of  an  age  not  very  different  from  the  Israelite  captivity  and 
Exodus.  The  great  temples,  tombs,  and  statues  of  Upper  Egypt 
(from  which  we  gain  our  chief  knowledge  of  the  people),  were 
erected  under  the  Theban  kings,  who  probably  reached  the  acme 
of  their  power  after  the  Exodus.  But  the  Pyramids  of  Lower  Egypt 
were  seen  by  Abraham  far  across  the  valley  of  the  Nile,  as  he 
approached  the  royal  city  of  Memphis,  with  the  same  general 
outline  for  the  first  sight  of  which  the  traveller  still  strains  his 
gaze.  The  impression  which  the  view  of  them  produces  is  thus 
described  by  one  of  these  recent  eye-witnesses : — 

"  The  approach  to  the  Pyramids  (by  one  travelling  westward 
fom  Cairo  and  the  banks  of  the  Nile)  is  first  a  rich  green  plain, 
and  then  the  Desert ;  that  is,  they  are  just  at  the  beginning  of  the 
Desert,  on  a  ridge  which  of  itself  gives  them  a  lift  above  the  valley 
of  the  Nile.  It  is  impossible  not  to  feel  a  thrill  as  one  finds  one- 
self drawing  nearer  to  the  greatest  and  most  ancient  monuments  in 
the  world,  to  see  them  coming  out  stone  by  stone  into  view,  and 
the  dark  head  of  the  Sphinx  peering  over  the  lower  sandhills.  Yet 
the  usual  accounts  are  correct,  w^hich  represent  this  nearer  sight  as 
not  impressive ;  their  size  diminishes,  and  the  clearness  with  which 
you  see  their  several  stones  strips  them  of  their  awful  and  mys- 
terious character.  It  is  not  till  you  are  close  under  the  Great 
Pyramid,  and  look  up  at  the  huge  blocks  rising  above  you  into  the 
sky,  that  the  consciousness  is  forced  upon  you  that  this  is  the  near- 
est approach  to  a  mountain  that  the  art  of  man  has  produced."  * 

These  successive  emotions  are  not  unfit  emblems  of  the  stages 
of  our  interest  in  the  problem  of  the  pyramids  and  in  Egyptian 
history  itself.  An  object  of  vague  but  universal  curiosity,  the 
first  approach  to  its  study  involves  us  in  no  little  doubt  and  dis- 
appointment, which  it  requires  a  closer  knowledge  to  dispel. 

The  traveller  at  once  discovers,  what  the  historian  too  often  for- 
gets, that  the  pyramids  are  not  to  be  viewed  or  studied  by  them- 
selves. "  The  strangest  feature  in  the  view  is  the  platform  on 
which  the  pyramids  stand.  It  completely  dispels  the  involuntary 
notion  that  one  has  formed  of  the  solitary  abruptness  of  the  three 
pyramids.  Not  to  speak  of  the  groups,  in  the  distance,  of  Abou- 
Seir,  Sakkara,  and  Dashour,  the  whole  platfoi-m  of  this  greatest 
of  them  all  is  a  maze  of  pyramids  and  tombs.  Three  little  ones 
stand  beside  the  First,  three  also  beside  the  Third.  The  Second 
and  Third  are  each  surrounded  by  traces  of  square  enclosures,  and 
their  eastern  faces  are  approached  through  enormous  masses  of 

*  Stanley,  Sinai  and  Palestine,  Introduction,  p.  Ivi. 


92  THE  HISTORY  OF  EGYPT.  [Chap.  VI 

ruins  as  if  of  some  great  temple  ;  wliilst  the  First  is  enclosed  on 
three  sides  by  long  rows  of  massive  tombs,  on  which  you  look 
down  from  the  top  as  on  tlie  plats  of  a  stone-garden.  You  see, 
in  short,  that  it  is  the  most  sacred  and  frequented  part  of  that 
vast  cemetery  which  extends  all  along  the  western  ridge  for 
twenty  miles  behind  Memphis."  ^ 

The  situation  of  these  tombs,  on  the  western  border  of  the 
Nile  valley,  arose  from  the  belief  that  the  abodes  of  the  dead  were 
in  the  West,  the  land  of  sunset  and  of  darkness.  The  very  few 
tombs  on  the  east  side  of  the  Nile  have  evidently  been  placed 
there  for  reasons  of  convenience.  No  pyramids  are  found  on  the 
cast  till  we  come  to  UjDper  Ethiopia,  which  lay  beyond  the  sacred 
land,  whither  men  conveyed  the  bodies  of  their  relations.  The 
region  of  the  West,  and  the  abode  of  departed  spirits  (the  Hades 
of  the  Greeks),  were  expressed  by  the  cognate  words  Ement  and 
Amenti.  Like  the  kindred  race  in  Chaldsea,  the  Egyptians  re- 
garded certain  cities  as  sacred  burial-places.  Such,  besides  the 
vast  cemetery  common  to  Memphis  and  Heliopolis,  was  the  great 
Necropolis  of  Thebes,  with  its  royal  tombs,  and  that  of  Abydos, 
both  of  which  have  yielded  a  vast  harvest  of  antiquities. 

The  immense  pains  bestowed  by  the  Egyptians  upon  the  remains 
and  resting-places  of  the  dead  bear  witness  to  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant points  in  their  religious  philosophy.  The  paintings  of 
their  tombs  continually  confirm  the  statement  of  Herodotus,  that 
they  believed  in  the  immortality  of  the  human  soul,  and  in  its 
reunion  to  the  body  which  it  had  quitted  at  death,  after  a  long 
cycle  (Herodotus  says  3000  years)  of  transmigration  through  the 
forms  of  all  the  animals  of  air,  earth,  and  water.f  Together  with 
this  belief,  they  held  the  doctrine  of  a  future  judgment.  The  soul 
was  regarded  as  an  emanation  from  the  Divine  Essence,  to  which 
it  returned  at  death,  either  to  be  re-united  to  the  Deity  in  a  state 
of  blessedness,  or  to  be  banished  into  the  bodies  of  unclean  animals 
till  its  sins  were  purged  away.  Each  man's  rank  after  his  death 
was  determined  by  the  judgment  supposed  to  have  been  passed 
upon  his  life.  The  elaborate  embalmment  of  the  dead,  the  cere- 
monies performed  before  the  mummy,  and  the  care  taken  of  it  in 
the  sepulchre,  were  honours  paid  to  the  form  in  which  a  part  of  the 
Divine  Essence  had  resided  and  would  reside  again.    In  this  belief 

*  Stanley,  Sinai  and  Palestine,  Introduction,  p.  Ivii. 

f  The  Greek  writers,  who  unanimously  attest  that  the  Egyptians  held  the  doctrine 
of  metempsychosis,  or  the  transmigration  of  souls,  say  that  Pythagoras  borrowed  it 
from  them. 


EGYPTIAN   DOCTRINK   OF   A    FUTURK   flTATE.  03 

we  cannot  l>ul.  trnc*;  ;i,  rcniiiiinl,  ol'  llic  |tiiiiiitiv(j  rcli/^ion  [Juntod 
in  K;^yi>t  ut,  tJic  lirst,  Kcl.llcriicnl,  of  tli<;  j)iim(;viil  niCAi  of  Ifiun,  ;in(j 
]>rescnvc'(l  hy  IIk;  iiiichiui^in^  liuhitH  of  tlic  jx-uplc!.  That  it  luul  jiot 
iiiorf;  pcnvcrfiil  inlliiciK^c  on  tlicir  livcH,  will  rujt  Huri>riHC  tiiOHO  who 
know  the  natiin;  <)\'  mun.  WIkmi  the  roHtruintH  of  a  piiro  crood  on 
evil  li!il>itH  have,  on(;(!  hocn  h)'<>k(;n  lhi'oii<.r]i,  ar;^iini(;ntH  ai'o  oven 
IoiuhI  in  the  lornicr  I'oi-  fJi(!  iii<iiil<^(;nc(;  ol'  th<;  hitt(;r.  "Wo  know 
that  th(;  |)(;r[)(;tiKil  K-jsavd  \):ud  to  th(!  ti'iith  of  thoir  rnoi'tality  was 
j)(;i'V(;rt(;(l  1)^  iho  Egyptians  into  a  niofivc  for  H(;nKii;iI  iiKlnl/^cncc, 
iiiid  Ihr;  forms  ol"  thodoad  wcrobrouglit  into  ihcir  hnixpn  In  to  j)oint 
tli(;  h;sHon,  "  Lot  UH  cat  and  drink,  for  lo-nioiTow  wc  die"  Nor 
would  the  j)r(;Hcnt  tcniptationK  ol'  pow(!r,  ga'ni,  and  Kctlf-indulgcncij 
1)C  imie,h  checked  l»y  a  ])antlieiHfie  doctrine  of"  immortality,  whicli 
pnjtuiHcd  to  all  an  ultimate  reunion  to  the  i>ivin(!  KhKenrtc.  In 
t'iiet,  tin;  nio.st  poweiful  motiv<;H  to  juntiec;  and  temixtranr^f!  Hcetn 
to  have  been  dcri\(;d  )-;i.tliei-  from  the  hhanus  of  <lishoiiou)'  to  tin; 
rcniaiiiH  of  the  dead,  than  fear  ol'thcrir  future  Htate. 

W<;  leav(;  to  the  cxeellent  writf;rH  on  Kgypti.'in  .'uilifjintic,-;  tin; 
dctailn  of  tin;  various  nioden  of  endiidmmcnt.  ;iiid  ol*  llic  fuiici-ul 
I'itcH.  The  body  W!ih  devoted  to  (Jhirin,  who,  with  IhIh,  ruhtd  ovei- 
Airn^nti  ;  it  I'eeeived  his  name,  wjih  hound  up  in  imitation  of  IiIb 
likencKH,  and  wan  marked  with  tiome  of  hi;-;  emhleiuK,  CHpecially  the 
]K;ai-d  of  a  form  which  hehmged  ordy  to  thegodK.  SacrilicctH  hav- 
ing heeii  (offered  for  the  d(;ccaHed  to  OhlriH,  or  one  of  the  other  d(;i- 
ticH  of  Amcnti,  the  munuriicH  were  j>laced  in  a  Hort  of  moveahio 
cloH(;t,  with  folding  doorn,  in  which,  having  (A'U:]i  remai)ir;d  lor 
Ko/nc  tim(!  in  tlie  liouw;,  they  wei-e  ftonve,yef|  (*n  a  nledge  to  the 
place  olhuriul.  'J'Imh  wan,  for  the  poor,  eithci-  ;i  |)it  dug  id  the  enrlh 
to  hold  many  mummlcH,  or  nichcrf  in  the  hides  of  a  rock-hewn  cave, 
which  wan  closed  up  with  maHf)nry  when  full.  'I'he  tomhs  of  the 
rich  had.  likewise  their  j)if>:  or  caves  lor  1  he,  rlcposit  of  the  mummies, 
over  which  was  another  chamhf;r,  or  even  mor(i,  hewn  in  the  solid 
rock,  when  the  situation  allowed,  or  else  sumptuously  huilt  of  ma- 
sonry. 'J'lie,  inner  walls  wci'e  adorned  with  j^uintings,  HculpturcH, 
and  inscriptions  in  hiero4.dyphic,H,  and  here  the  r(Jativ(;s  of  the  de- 
ceased <jften  met,  to  join  the  j^rifjsts  in  K(;rvices  for  the  dead.  'J'h<5 
possession  of  sucli  a  tomh,  or  even  ol*  a  share  in  one,  was  (>no  <>\)- 
j(;ct  clierished  by  all  classcH.  Herodotus  tells  us  that  one  of  the 
Kgyptian  kings  jjcrtnitted  family  tombs  to  ]j(;  j>ledged  for  njoJM;y 
lent,  as  the  debtor  would  make  livary  effort  to  avoid  the  disgrace 
of  Buch  a  loss.  'J'lie  kings  and  ]»riests,  and  the  wealthy  of  the  other 
liigh  castes,  were  conveyed  to  th(;  tomb  in  a  [>om[)ous  procession, 


g4  THE  HISTORY  OF  EGYPT.  lChap.  VI. 

the  mummy  being  borne  in  a  hearse,  with  ornamental  panels,  one 
of  wliich  was  removed  to  display  its  head.  In  the  route  of  the 
funeral  there  always  lay  a  lake,  the  emblem  of  the  gulf  between 
the  two  worlds,  over  which  the  hearse  was  conveyed  in  the  haris^ 
or  sacred  boat ;  tlie  boatman  bearing,  as  the  Greek  writers  tell 
us,  the  name  of  Charon,  whence  they  traced  their  own  fable  of 
his  ferrying  the  dead  over  the  infernal  river  Styx.  This  Charon 
appears  to  have  been  the  god  Horus.  But  tlie  deceased  was  not 
suffered  to  embark  till  he  had  stood  a  trial  before  forty-two  judges, 
who  sat  in  a  semicircle  on  the  margin  of  the  lake.  Any  person 
might  come  forward  to  accuse  him  of  having  led  an  evil  life,  on  pain 
of  the  heaviest  penalties  if  he  failed.  If  the  charges  were  proved,  the 
priests  denied  the  rites  of  sepulture — the  worst  disgrace  that  could 
befall  a  man.  It  was,  as  Wilkinson  observes,  like  being  left  on  the 
wrong  side  of  the  Styx.  Not  even  the  kings  were  exempt  from 
this  ordeal ;  and  cases  are  recorded  of  their  being  refused  sepulture, 
like  some  of  the  Jewish  kings.  But  no  further  indignities  were  per- 
petrated, and  even  the  worst  of  men  were  suffered  to  be  privately 
buried  by  their  friends ;  a  lot  shared  by  those  whose  poverty  did  not 
allow  them  a  public  funeral.  Formidable  as  this  funereal  j udgment 
was,  it  only  typified  that  which  was  believed  to  be  held  in  the 
other  world  by  Osiris,  before  whom  the  souls  were  brought  by 
Anubis,  at  the  gate  of  Amenti,  and  there  weighed  in  the  scales  of 
Truth  by  Justice,  whom  the  Egyptians  figure  not  only  as  blind, 
but  without  a  head.  The  gate  is  guarded  by  a  monster  more 
hideous  than  the  Cerberus  of  the  Greeks,  called  the  Devourer  of 
the  Wicked.  Such  are  the  scenes  that  we  may  still  behold  vividly 
pourtrayed  on  the  walls  of  those  tombs  to  which  the  corpse  was  at 
length  conveyed,  to  rest  until  the  sepulchre  should  be  ransacked 
by  the  curiosity  of  succeeding  ages. 

The  position  of  the  pyramids,  grouped  with  and  towering  above 
these  abodes  of  the  dead,  whose  sculptures  bear  evidence  of  a  con- 
temporary age,  and  the  actual  discovery  in  the  Third  Pyramid  of 
the  body  of  its  founder,  can  leave  little  doubt  that  the  ancient  wri- 
ters are  correct  in  representing  them  as  (Resigned  by  kings,  whose 
arrogance  could  be  satisfied  with  no  meaner  edifices  for  their  own 
sepulchres.  Herodotus  relates,  on  the  authority  of  the  priests,  the 
full  story  of  the  forced  labour  by  means  of  which  Cheops  (Shufu) 
erected  the  First  Pyramid,  as  well  as  the  gigantic  causeway  to 
convey  the  stones  across  the  valley  of  the  Nile  from  the  eastern 
hills,  a  work  not  inferior  to  the  pyramid  itself.*     He  tells  us 

*  Here  is  a  striking  proof  of  the  importance  attached  to  the  position  on  the  west 


BUILDING  OF  THE  PYRAMIDS.  95 

that  this  causeway  was  ten  years  in  building,  and  the  pyramid  itself 
twenty.  He  describes  the  mode  of  erecting  it  by  successive  stages, 
and  the  means  of  raising  the  huge  stones  by  machines  placed  on 
these  stages.  He  even  repeats  the  reading  given  by  an  interpreter 
of  an  inscription  which  he  saw  upon  the  pyramid,  recording  the 
quantities  of  radishes,  onions,  and  garlic  consumed  by  the  builders 
— (the  savoury  pot-herbs  of  Egyptian  labourers,  which  the  liberated 
Israelites  so  sorely  missed) — and  the  sum  spent  in  its  erection 
namely,  1600  talents  of  silver.''^  After  making  every  allowance 
for  mistakes,  and  even  for  deception,  by  the  interpreters — who  cer- 
tainly sometimes  amused  themselves  at  the  traveller's  expense — 
these  details  seem  to  prove  that  the  time,  and  manner,  and  pui-pose 
of  the  erection  were  known  to  the  priests  in  the  time  of  Herodotus. 
The  recent  discovery  of  the  founder's  name  completes  the  evidence. 
A  bare  mention  will  therefore  suffice  for  the  ingenious  theories 
which  assign  to  the  pyramids  other  builders  and  a  widely  different 
purpose.  In  regarding  them,  however,  primarily  as  regal  sepul- 
chres, we  do  not  exclude  the  supposition  that  they  may  have  been 
BO  planned  as  to  give  their  construction  other  uses  and  meanings. 
Their  position,  exactly  facing  the  four  cardinal  points,  and  the 
inclination  of  their  main  passages,  which  we  have  already  noticed, 
seems  to  show  a  connexion  with  the  science  of  astronomy.  Their 
dimensions  would  naturally  be  exact  multiples  of  the  standards  of 
length  used  by  the  Egyptians.  But  the  discovery  of  all  manner  of 
ratios  in  the  sides,  sloping  edges,  height,  and  angles,  of  the  Great 
Pyramid,  and  in  the  length,  breadth,  thickness,  and  solid  content 
of  the  sarcophagus  or  coffer  in  its  central  chamber,  besides  being 
suspicious  from  the  very  number  of  the  supposed  coincidences 
requires  a  previous  assumption  as  to  the  scientific  knowledge  of 
the  builders.  Let  it  be  proved,  from  other  evidence,  that  they  had 
obtained,  by  their  astronomical  science,  a  tolerably  correct  measure 
of  the  earth,  and  that  they  had  deduced  an  exact  metrical  system 
from  that  measurement ;  and  then  we  might  accept  the  probability 
that  the  dimensions  of  the  pyramids  pei-petuate  their  measures. 
But  to  prove  all  this  we  want  more  than  coincidences,  and  even 
if  proved,  it  would  not  exclude  the  belief  in  the  primary  purpose 
of  the  buildings  as  sepulchral  monuments.     We  can  far  more 

side  of  the  Nile.      Traces  of  causeways  are   seen  in  front  of  the  First  and  Third 
Pyramids. 

*  This  would  amount,  on  the  largest  estimate  of  the  talent,  to  about  £400,000,  an 
enormous  sum  in  those  days,  and  yet  one  which  might  appear  inadequate,  were  it  not 
for  the  fact  that  the  labour  was  forced. 


96  THE  HISTORY   OF  EGYPT.  [Chap.  VI. 

readily  believe  that  such  edifices,  erected  for  their  own  uses, 
should  be  so  constructed  as  also  to  preserve  standards  of  measure 
in  their  several  parts,  than  that  they  were  designed  solely  to 
perpetuate  those  standards.  How  strongly  the  ordinary  view  is 
contirnied  by  what  we  know  of  the  manner  of  their  construction, 
will  appear  as  we  proceed. 

Tile  pyramids  of  Lower  Egypt,  then,  are  the  chief  sepulchral 
monuments  in  that  vast  necropolis  of  ancient  Memphis,  the 
general  plan  of  which  can  still  be  clearly  traced.  They  were  the 
tombs  of  the  hings,  towering  in  the  midst  of  the  lesser  sepulchres 
of  their  subjects.  The  form  of  monument  seems  to  have  been 
coeval  with  the  Egyptian  monarchy,  for  Manetho  tells  us  that 
Yenephcs,  the  fourth  king  of  the  First  Dynasty,  built  a  pyramid 
at  Kochomo,  the  site  of  which  is  uncertain.  The  capital  of  Lower 
Egypt  stood  on  the  west  side  of  the  Nile,  about  ten  miles  above 
Cairo ;  and  its  people  chose  for  their  cemetery  the  lowest  platform 
of  the  western  hills,  where  they  could  not  only  rest  far  above  the 
reach  of  the  inundation,  but  hew  their  sepulchral  chambers  in  the 
solid  rock.  The  existing  pyramids — for  many  have  bepn  destroyed 
— stand  together  in  groups,  of  which  a  good  general  view  is  obtained 
from  the  citadel  of  Cairo.  Looking  a  little  to  the  south  of  west, 
we  see  the  three  largest  pyramids,  which  are  distinguished  by  the 
name  of  the  neighbouring  village  of  El-Gliizeh.  Further  south 
are  those  of  Ahou-Seir,  also  three  in  number,  but  much  smaller, 
A  little  bej^ond  them  is  the  very  curious  pyramid  of  /Sal'l'ara, 
called  the  "  Pyramid  of  Degrees,"  from  the  steps  on  its  surface, 
surrounded  by  a  large  number  of  smaller  pyramids.  The  two 
pyramids  of  Dashour,  the  next  largest  to  those  of  Ghizeh,  are 
the  last  that  can  be  referred  to  the  necroj)olis  of  Memphis,  though 
there  are  several  others  further  to  the  south.  The  whole  necro- 
polis, which  appears  to  have  been  common  to  Heliopolis  and  Mem- 
phis, extends  over  a  space  of  about  twenty  miles,  from  the  ruined 
pyramid  of  Abou-Ruweysh,  a  little  to  the  north  of  those  of 
El-Gliizeh,  to  the  southernmost  pyramid  of  Dashour.*  But  the 
whole  district  over  which  the  pyramids  are  spread  extends  from 
29°  to  30°  N.  latitude,  or  almost  TO  miles,  corresponding  very 
nearly  with  Middle  Egypt.  Their  number  is  estimated  at  about 
69,  or  one  to  a  mile  on  the  average.  Of  all  these,  the  northern 
pyramid  of  Abou-Seir  is  probably  the  most  ancient ;  being,  as  we 
have  seen,  the  tomb  of  Shura,  the  lirst  king  of  the  Fourth  Dynasty ; 

*  A  map  and  panorama  of  the  whole  district  is  given  by  General  Howard  Vyse, 
Operations  carried  on  at  (he  Pyramids  of  Ghizeh  in  1837,  vol.  iii. 


DESCRIPTION   OF  THE  PYRAMIDS.  97 

unless,  as  some  suppose,  the  ruined  pyramid  of  Abou-Euweysh, 
the  northernmost  of  the  whole,  be  the  pyramid  of  Yenephes,  of  the 
First  Dynasty.  The  next  is  the  "  Great  Pyramid  "  of  Ghizeh, 
which  has  always  been  the  chief  object  of  curiosity,  and  affords  the 
best  type  of  this  sort  of  edifice.  It  is  the  largest  and  northermnost 
of  the  three,  which  are  placed,  so  to  speak,  en  echelon  from  N.E. 
to  S.W.  The  other  two  are  the  "  Second  Pyramid,"  which 
Herodotus  ascribes  to  Cephren,  and  the  "  Third,"  or  Pyramid  of 
Mycerinus. 

The  name  Pyramid  is  not  Egyptian,  but  Greek,  nor  did  it 
originally  denote  the  peculiar  geometrical  form  to  which  we  now 
apply  it,  but  a  common  object,  to  which  the  pyramids  of  Egypt 
bore  some  resemblance.*  In  the  same  way  the  Egyptian  obelisk 
was  so  named  by  the  Greeks  from  its  resemblance  to  a  spit  or 
ingot.  Kay,  we  might  even  venture  on  the  paradoxical  statement, 
that  these  edifices  were  not  originally  pyramids  at  all  in  the 
modern  sense  of  the  word.  Like  those  other  great  types  of  Hamite 
architecture,  the  temple-towers  of  Chaldsea,  and  the  pagodas  of 
India,  they  were  at  first  built  in  successive  stages,  each  smaller 
than  the  one  below.f  The  distinct  statement  of  Herodotus  and 
other  ancient  writers  to  this  effect  is  now  abundantly  con- 
firmed by  the  form  of  the  "  Pyramid  of  Degrees  "  and  of  several 
of  the  smaller  pyratoids,  and  by  a  minute  examination  of  the 
construction  of  the  others.  This  fact  seems  to  prove  that  the 
Chaldsean  towers  are  of  the  more  ancient  type,  and  it  raises  a 
presumption  that,  like  them,  the  Egyptian  pyramids  were 
originally  temples,  connected  with  a  Sabsean  form  of  idolatry.  It 
may  be  too  fanciful  to  suppose  that  the  appropriation  to  his  own 
sepulchre  of  a  form  sacred  to  the  gods  was  the  impiety  which  the 
priests  charged  on  the  greatest  king  of  the  Fourth  Dynasty,  but  we 
may  be  allowed  to  conjecture  that  those  mighty  Pharaohs,  who 
assumed  the  names  and'  attributes  of  their  chief  gods,  aspired 
after  death  to  the  divine  honour  of  a  temple  tomb.  It  is  interest- 
ing to  observe  how  the  mode  of  construction  admitted  of  the 
lateral  enlargement  of  the  pjTamid ;  and  the  Third  Pyramid  bears 
evidence  of  having  been  enlarged  in  this  manner.   In  some  cases,  at 

*  Tne  exact  etymology  is  uncertain. 

f  The  faces  of  these  steps,  or,  as  Herodotus  calls  them,  battlements,  were  some- 
times not  perpendicular.  In  the  "  Pyramid  of  Degrees "  they  are  inclined  about  70° 
to  the  horizon.  The  pyramid  of  Meydoon  is  an  admirable  case  of  construction  in  three 
stages  with  oblique  sides,  giving  a  form  intermediate  between  the  Chaldsean  tower  and 
the  regular  pyramid.  The  resemblance  to  the  old  form  of  Chaldaean  temple  is  very 
striking  in  the  three-staged  brick  pyramid  of  Illahoon. 
VOL.  I. — 7 


98  THE   HISTORY   OF  EGYPT.  [Chap.  VI. 

least,  a  piece  of  the  solid  rock  which  was  levelled  to  form  the  base  of 
the  pyramid,  was  left  standing  as  a  central  core  of  the  whole  edifice. 
In  the  Great  Pyramid  it  reaches  about  80  feet  above  the  base. 

It  has  been  supposed  that  the  lateral  extension  of  the  larger 
pyramids,  and  the  number  of  their  stages,  bore  a  definite  relation 
to  the  length  of  their  intended  occupant's  reign ;  that  the  chamber 
designed  for  this  sarcophagus  was  first  excavated  in  the  solid  rock, 
with  a  passage  down  to  it  just  large  enough  to  admit  the 
sarcophagus,  and  inclined  at  a  convenient  angle  to  aid  its 
descent ;  *  that  a  cubical  block  of  masonry  was  then  built  over  the 
chamber,  forming  the  first  stage  of  the  pyramid; — that  fresh 
stages  were  added  for  each  year  of  the  king's  reign,  and  those 
below  extended  proportionally; — and  that  the  final  process  of 
finishing  off  the  surface  was  performed  after  his  death.  In  that 
final  process,  the  angles  of  the  stages  were  built  up  with  masonry, 
the  outer  courses  of  which  formed  steps  more  numerous  and 
smaller  than  the  original  stages ;  and  the  surface  was  then 
finished  with  blocks  of  stone,  the  outer  faces  of  which  had  already 
been  quarried  to  the  required  slope,  and  these  were  finally  brought 
to  a  fine  polish.  It  is  no  doubt  to  this  last  process  that  Herodotus 
refers,  when  he  says  that  the  pyraixdd  was  finished  irbva.  the  top 
downwards.  In  the  upper  part  of  the  Second  Pyramid  these 
casing-stones  are  still  perfect.  In  the  Great  Pyramid  their  loss 
has  converted  each  face  into  a  series  of  203  rough  steps,  ■v^hose 
height  varies  from  4  feet  10  inches  at  the  bottom  to  2  feet  2 
inches  at  the  top,  their  breadth  being  6  feet  6  inches.  Some  of 
the  lowest  casing-stones  were  discovered  in  their  places  by  General 
Howard  Yyse.f  They  were  4  feet  11  inches  high,  and  6  feet  3 
inches  on  the  sloping  face,  4  feet  3  inches  wade  at  the  top,  and 
8  feet  3  inches  at  the  base.  They  were  united  by  the  hardest 
cement,  with  joints  no  thicker  than  silver  paper ;  and  their  angles 
were  so  accurately  formed,  that  a  calculation  based  on  them  gave 
the  actual  height  of  the  pyramid.  Like  the  bulk  of  the  masonry, 
they  are  of  the  calcareous  stone  from  the  quarries  of  Tourah  in  the 
eastern  hills.:}:    As  thus  finished,  the  whole  edifice  formed  a  "  right 

*  This  passage  almost  always  faces  the  north.  When  the  entrance  is  higher  up 
the  side  of  the  building  than  the  ground  line,  it  seems  to  prove  a  lateral  extension 
beyond  that  originally  allowed  for.  W'e  shall  presently  sec  how  curious  a  case  of  this 
sort  is  presented  by  the  Great  Pyramid.  The  southern  pyramid  of  Dashour  has, 
besides  the  original  chamber  and  passage,  another  much  higher  up,  with  an  entrance 
in  the  west  front. 

\  Some  pieces  of  them  are  in  the  British  Museum. 

:j:  The  Second  Pyramid  is  cased  with  granite  from  Upper  Egypt. 


EXTERIOR  OF  THE   GREAT  PYRAMID.  99 

pyramid  "  on  a  square  base,  herein  differing  from  the  Chaldaean 
towers,  in  which  the  stages  are  not  pLaced  concentrically  over  each 
other.  The  faces  are  a  little  less  in  altitude  than  equilateral 
triangles ;  in  other  words,  the  edges  are  somewhat  shorter  than 
the  base.*  These  proportions,  however,  are  not  the  same  in  all 
the  other  pyramids.f 

The  dimensions  of  the  Great  Pyramid  have  been  accurately 
taken  by  General  Howard  Yyse,  whose  observations  were  com- 
pletely reconciled  with  some  former  measurements  by  the  dis- 
covery of  the  casing-stones.  The  base  was  originally  a  square  of 
756  feet,  the  height  was  480  feet  9  inches,  the  angles  made  by  the 
triangular  sides  with  the  plane  of  the  base  51°  50', :{:  and  the  angle 
between  two  opposite  faces  at  the  vertex  76"  20'.  By  the  loss  of 
the  casing  and  other  stones,  carried  off  to  Cairo  to  be  used  for 
building,  and  the  accumulation  of  rubbish  and  sand  round  the 
base,  it  is  reduced  to  Y32  feet  square,  and  the  height  to  460  feet 
9  inches.  The  area  of  the  base,  now  535,824  square  feet,  was 
originally  571,536  square  feet,  covering  more  than  thirteen  acres. 
The  whole  mass  contained  90,000,000  cubic  feet  of  masonry, 
weighing  about  6,316,000  tons.  Tliese  last  are  numbers  scarcely 
intelligible  to  any  but  a  railway  engineer,  but  the  reader  may 
form  some  conception  of  the  edifice  by  imagining  a  pyramid 
nearly  one-third  higher  than  St.  Paul's  standing  on  a  base  some- 
what larger  than  Lincoln's-inn-fields. 

What  might  be  the  chambers  and  passages  constructed,  and 
what  the  objects  deposited,  within  this  enormous  mass  of  mason- 
ry, were  questions  perhaps  forbidden  to  the  Egyptians  by  religious 
reverence,  but  which  foreign  travellers  and  rulers  have  always 
tried  to  solve.  It  has  been  observed  that  Homer  makes  no  men- 
tion of  the  pyramids,  as  they  did  not  come  under  his  notice,  though 
a  modern  poet  has  fancied  that  the  same  mummy  might 

"  Have  hob-a-nobbed  with  Pharaoh  glass  to  glass, 
Or  dropped  a  half-penny  in  Homer's  hat ! " 

Herodotus  tells  us,  on  the  information  of  the  priests,  that  below 
the  Great  Pyramid  were  chambers  hewn  out  of  solid  rock,  and 
designed  by  Cheops  for  use  as  vaults ;  and  that  these  formed  a 

*  The  angle  between  the  edge  and  base  in  each  triangle  is  57°  59'  40". 

f  The  sauthern  pyramid  of  Dashour  has  two  different  slopes,  the  upper  half  forming 
the  acuter  angle  with  the  horizon.  But  the  supposition  that  this  was  a  mere  accident, 
arising  from  a  wish  to  complete  the  building  more  speedily,  is  confirmed  by  the  rough 
workmanship  of  the  upper  part. 

^  This  is  also  the  angle  at  the  base  of  the  casing-stones. 


100  THE  HISTORY  OF  EGYPT.  [Chap.  VI. 

sort  of  island,  surrounded  by  water  introduced  from  the  Nile  by 
a  canal.  How  far  tliis  agrees  with  modern  discoveries  will  ap- 
pear presently.  The  respect  paid  to  the  royal  sepulchres  by  Per- 
sian and  Grecian  rulers  was  no  barrier  to  the  Romans,  under 
whose  government  the  descriptions  of  Strabo,  Pliny,  and  others, 
prove  that  the  Great  Pyramid  had  been  rifled.  In  modem  times  it 
has  been  repeatedly  examined.  One  entrance  to  it  is  a  forced  pas- 
sage made  by  the  caliphs.  The  second  pyramid  was  entered,  with 
vast  labour,  by  Belzoni,  who  found  that  the  Caliph  Othman  had 
been  there  before  him,  and  had  recorded  his  entrance  in  a  Cufic  in- 
scription (a.  d.  1196-7).  The  numerous  investigations  since  made, 
leave  little  doubt  of  the  general  internal  plan  and  purpose  of  the 
pyramids. 

A  single  narrow  passage,  entered  from  the  northern  face,  at  or 
near  the  ground-line,  leads  down  to  the  sepulchral  chamber,  hewn 
out  of  the  solid  rock  beneath  the  centre  of  the  pyramid.  Above 
this  is  usually  another  chamber,  corresponding  to  the  upper  cham- 
ber of  an  ordinary  tomb,  but  by  no  means  for  the  same  uses.  For 
nothing  is  more  remarkable  in  these  buildings  than  the  jealous 
care  with  which  the  entrance  and  passage  were  closed,  by  blocks 
of  stone  so  massive  that  explorers  have  had  to  force  a  way  round 
them  through  the  masonry.  The  tombs  of  ordinary  persons  were 
left  open,  to  admit  future  burials,  and  to  allow  of  the  performance 
of  funeral  rites  ;  while  the  Memphian  Pharaohs  slept  in  solitary 
state  beneath  a  huge  funeral  mole  of  masonry.  But  not  even 
its  solid  mass  could  secure  their  repose.  The  sarcophagus  of 
Cheops  had  been  empty  from  its  first  discovery.  Belzoni  found 
the  tomb  of  Cephrenes  rifled  by  his  Arab  predecessors.  The 
remains  of  these  kings  are  consigned  to  oblivion ;  but  the  fate 
of  Mycerinus  has  been  even  worse.  Standing  to-day  in  our 
museum  beside  curious  spectators,  in  front  of  the  glass  case 
which  contains  the  shattered  remnants  of  his  cofiin,  and  the 
mouldering  fragments  of  his  bones,  the  mockery  even  of  a  skele- 
ton, we  knew  not  which  to  admire  most,  the  vanity  of  human 
greatness,  or  the  recklessness  of  human  curiosity.  jSTeither  the 
Roman  satirist  in  his  Exjpende  Ilannihalem^  nor  Shakspere  when 
he  uttered  the  like  moral — 

"  Imperial  C^sar,  dead  and  turned  to  clay, 
May  stop  a  hole,  to  keep  the  wind  away," 

contemplated  the  case  of  the  royal  dust  which  still  retains,  in  its 
degradation,  some  vestiges  of  the  human  form  ! 

It  still  remains  to  notice  some  very  peculiar  and  interesting 


INTERIOR  OF  THE   GREAT  PYRAMID.  101 

points  in  the  internal  structure  of  the  Great  Pyramid.  The  en- 
trance lies  in  its  northern  face,  24  ft.  6  in.  east  of  the  central 
axis,  49  feet  above  the  base,  and  is  easily  reached  by  a  mound 
of  the  fallen  stones.  It  is  about  3  ft.  6^' in.  broad  by  3  ft.  11  in. 
high,  the  sarcophagus  in  the  central  chamber  being  3  ft.  3  in. 
broad  by  3  ft,  5|  in.  high,  so  closely  was  the  passage  fitted  to 
it.  Above  this  small  opening  is  a  gigantic  architrave,  formed 
by  huge  stones  inclined  to  one  another,  the  arch  being  as  yet 
unknown.  The  passage,  inclined  downwards  at  an  angle  of 
26°  41',  and  320  ft.  10.  long,  leads  for  some  distance  through 
the  masonry,  and  then  much  further  through  the  solid  rock,  to 
what  was  doubtless  the  original  sepulchral  chamber,  100  feet  be- 
low the  base  of  the  pyramid  itself;  it  is  46  ft.  by  27  ft.,  and  11  ft. 

6  in.  high.  A  passage  which  runs  from  it  horizontally  to  the 
south  for  about  55  feet,  appears  to  have  been  abandoned.  It 
would  seem  as  if  the  length  of  the  king's  reign  had  caused  the 
masonrjr  of  the  pyramid  to  cover  the  original  mouth  of  the  first 
passage,  and  instead  of  leaving  it  open,  a  new  one  was  formed  in 
another  direction.  At  a  distance  of  63  ft.  2  in.  from  the  en- 
trance, and  about  where  the  masonry  covers  the  rock,  this  new 
passage  branches  oS  upwards  at  an  angle  of  26°  18'  to  the 
length  of  124  ft.  4  in.  From  this  point  it  is  continued  horizon- 
tally for  109  ft.  10  in.  to  a  chamber  which  lies  nearly  in  the  centre 
of  the  pyramid,  67  ft.  4  in.  above  its  base.  This,  which  is  com- 
monly called  the  "  Queen's  Chamber,"  is  18  ft.  9  in.  by  17  ft., 
and  20  ft.  3  in.  high,  with  a  roof  of  flat  stones  placed  so  as  to  form 
an  angle.  But  neither  was  the  sarcophagus  deposited  here.  These 
passages  ai-e  all  lined  with  calcareous  stone  finely  polished.  But 
the  upward  inclined  passage  is  continued  from  the  point  where 
the  horizontal  passage  branches  ofiP,  in  the  form  of  a  grand  gallery 
150  feet  10  in.  long  and  28  feet  high,  lined  with  blocks  of  granite, 
in  courses  projecting  each  over  the  one  below.  From  the  end  of 
this  gallery  another  short  passage,  or  vestibule,  leads  horizontally 
to  a  chamber  34  ft.  3  in.  by  17  ft.  1  in.,  and  19  ft.  1  in.  h^gh, 
roofed  with  nine  flat  slabs  of  granite ;  the  whole  chamber  and 
vestibule  being  lined  with  blocks  of  the  same  material.  This  is 
known  as  the  "  King's  Chamber."  Near  its  western  end,  placed 
due  north  and  south,  is  a  red  granite  sarcophagus,  of  so  fine  a 
crystalline  substance  that  it  rings  like  a  bell  when  struck.     It  is 

7  ft.  6^  in.  long,  3  ft.  3  in.  wide,  3  ft.  5^  in.  high,,  and  7i  in. 
thick  at  the  base.  The  sarcophagus  has  neither  hieroglyphics  nor 
sculptures  of  any  sort.     Its  occupant,  if  one  ever  rested  there,  is 


102  THE  HISTORY   OF  EGYPT.  [Chap.  VL 

gone,  and  even  the  lid  is  missing.  It  is  one  of  tiie  proLlems  of 
tlie  Great  Pyramid,  -whether  this  sarcophagus  was  introduced  after 
its  completion.  We  have  seen  that  the  first  passage  was  only  just 
large  enough  to  let  it  pass,  and  the  same  is  true  of  the  first  part 
of  the  upward  passage  and  its  horizontal  prolongation  ;  and  it  is 
not  easy  to  see  how  it  could  Lc  got  past  the  first  bend  and  up  the 
slope.  The  last  is  the  only  difficulty  ofi'ered  by  the  great  gallery  ; 
but  the  entrance  to  the  vestibule  is  so  small  that  if  the  sarco- 
phagus ever  passed  through  it,  it  must  liave  been  contracted  since. 
The  absence  of  any  sarcophagus  from  the  subterranean  and 
"  Queen's  "  chambers  favours  the  opinion  that  each  w^as  in  turn 
destined  for  the  royal  tomb,  and  afterwards  abandoned.  "When 
the  position  of  the  King's  Chamber  was  finally  settled,  what  is 
now  nearly  the  centre  of  the  pyramid  may  have  been  its  summit. 
The  sarcophagus  may  have  been  raised  along  the  upward  passage 
before  it  was  covered  in,  and  the  pyramid  afterwards  finished,  leav- 
ing the  mummy  to  be  brought  in  in  its  wooden  coffin.  That  the 
chamber  was  not  finally  closed  when  first  constructed,  is  clear 
from  the  elaborate  provision  for  its  ventilation.  Two  air  channels, 
about  9  inches  square,  are  carried  from  it  to  the  north  and  south 
faces  of  the  pyramid,  perpendicular  to  the  outer  surface ;  they 
were  evidently  constructed  as  the  building  proceeded.  When 
these  channels  were  opened  by  Mr.  Perring,  in  1837,  the  ventilation 
of  the  chamber  was  completely  restored.  The  jealous  care  Avith 
which  the  pyramid  was  finally  closed  is  proved  by  a  huge  block 
of  granite,  which  so  elFectually  shuts  the  mouth  of  the  upward 
passage,  that  explorers  have  had  to  force  their  way  round  it 
through  the  solid  masonry,  as  well  as  by  the  granite  portcullis 
which  as  effectually  blocks  the  horizontal  vestibule  to  the  King's 
Chamber.  This  closing  of  the  passages  is  an  argument  against 
the  truth  of  the  tradition,  that  by  the  judgment  after  his  death, 
Cheops  was  refused  burial  in  his  intended  sepulchre. 

Two  very  interesting  points  still  require  notice.  Above  the 
King's  Chamber  is  a  series  of  five  low  chambers,  of  somewhat 
larger  area,  and  from  6  ft.  4  in.  to  8  ft.  T  in.  in  height.  Their 
floors  and  roof  are  of  the  red  granite  of  Syene,  the  former  being 
rough  hewn,  the  latter  flat,  except  the  uppermost,  the  slabs  of 
which  form  an  angle  to  support  the  superincumbent  weight. 
This  roof  is  69  ft.  3  in.  above  that  of  the  King's  Chamber.  They 
were  evidently  designed  to  lighten  the  pressure  on  the  flat 
roof  of  that  chamber.  The  lowest  of  the  five  was  discovered  by 
Davison  in  1764,  the  rest  in  1837,  by  General  Howard  Yyse,  who 


INTERIOR  OF  THE   GREAT  PYRAMID.  103 

named  them  after  Wellington,  Nelson,  Sir  Robert  Arbntlmot,  and 
Colonel  Campbell.  It  was  on  the  blocks  of  these  chambers  that 
General  Howard  Yyse  made  his  grand  discovery  of  the  names  of 
Khufu  and  Num-Klmfu,  scrawled  in  large  linear  hieroglyphics, 
which  are  evidently  quarry  marks,  for  some  of  them  have  been 
cut  through  in  sawing  the  blocks.*  Thus  the  tradition  was  con- 
firmed, and  Cheops  proved  to  be  the  builder  of  the  pyramid. 

The  remaining  point  relates  to  the  so-called  "  Well."  This  is 
a  shaft,  2  ft.  4  in.  square,  cut  down  through  the  solid  masonry, 
from  the  point  where  the  horizontal  passage  to  the  "  Queen's 
Chamber"  branches  off  from  the  upward  inclined  passage.  It 
descends  perpendicularly  26  ft.  1  in.,  then  more  irregularly  for 
32  ft.  5  in.  to  a  recess  called  the  "  Grotto,"  not  far  from  the  base 
of  the  pyramid,  and  thence  into  the  lower  inclined  passage,  a  little 
above  the  subterranean  chamber.  Its  total  length  is  about  155 
feet.  It  is  supposed  to  have  been  made  as  an  exit  for  the  work- 
men after  they  had  closed  the  two  ends  of  the  great  passage. 
Some  explorers  have  sought  in  it  the  explanation  of  what  Hero- 
dotus and  Pliny  say  about  a  subterraneous  communication  with 
the  Nile ;  but  no  such  communication  has  been  found,  and  the 
story  seems  most  improbable. 

The  base  of  the  Great  Pyramid  is  about  137  feet  above  the  level 
of  the  inundation  of  the  Nile ;  the  floor  of  the  subterranean 
chamber  is  about  100  feet  below  the  base,  and  consequently  about 
37  feet  above  high  Nile ;  the  floor  of  the  "  Queen's  Chamber  "  is 
about  60  feet,  and  that  of  the  King's  Chamber  125  feet,  above  the 
base  ;  from  the  roof  of  the  latter  to  the  original  apex  of  the  pyra- 
mid is  about  300  feet. 

The  Second,  or  Pyramid  of  Cephren,  is  of  somewhat  smaller 
dimensions.  It  has,  so  far  as  is  known,  only  one  sepulchral 
chamber,  cut  into  the  surface  of  the  rock,  with  a  groined  roof  in 
the  base  of  the  pyramid.  There  are  two  entrances  ;  one  37  ft.  8 
in.  above  the  base,  descending  at  an  angle  of  25°  55'  to  the  sur- 
face of  the  rock,  along  which  it  nins  horizontally  to  the  sepulchral 
chamber  ;  the  other  entrance  is  on  the  base  line,  from  which  the 
passage  descends  some  distance  into  the  solid  rock,  and  then  re- 
ascends  to  join  the  horizontal  passage.  The  granite  sarcophagus 
was  found  empty  by  Belzoni, 

*  This  discovery  disposes  of  the  error,  that  hieroglyphics  were  not  used  thus  early. 
The  names  of  Cheops  and  Cephren  have  also  been  found  on  the  stone  scarabaei,  which 
the  Egyptians  used  as  emblems  of  Cheper,  the  Creator,  a  gigantic  specimen  of  which 
may  be  seen  in  the  British  Museum. 


104  THE  HISTORY   OF  EGYPT.  [Chap.  VI. 

Of  tlie  Third  Pyramid  we  have  ah-eady  had  occasion  to  speak  ; 
of  the  rest  we  can  only  stay  to  mention  that  several  are  of  brick, 
cased  with  stone.*  One  of  the  two  brick  pyramids  of  Dashour  is 
snpposed  by  some  to  be  that  ascri])ed  by  Herodotus  to  Asychis, 
whom  he  makes  the  successor  of  Mycerinus,  but  whose  name 
does  not  appear  in  the  lists  of  Manetho.f  It  bore,  as  the  historian 
tells  us,  an  inscription,  cut  in  stone,  to  the  following  effect :  "  De- 
spise nie  not  in  comparison  with  the  stone  pyramids  ;  for  I  surpass 
them  all,  as  much  as  Jove  surpasses  the  other  gods.  A  pole  was 
plunged  into  a  lake,  and  the  mud  which  clave  thereto  was  gath- 
ered ;  and  bricks  were  made  of  the  mud,  and  so  I  was  formed."  The 
quality  of  the  alluvial  soil  of  Egypt  naturally  suggested  the  mak- 
ing of  bricks  from  the  earliest  ages  ;  but  the  Egyptian  bricks  (at 
least  under  the  early  Pharaphs)  were  never  buj-nt,  but  only  sun- 
dried.  They  were  used  for  houses,  city  walls,  fortresses,  the  enclo- 
sures of  temples,  in  short,  for  all  buildings  not  of  a  monumental 
character.  It  was  only  as  art  declined  that  they  were  put  to  the 
latter  use,  and  then,  as  we  have  just  seen,  with  an  apology  dis- 
guised under  a  boast.  They  are  found  stamped  with  the  names 
of  Thothmes  III.,  Amenoph  III.,  and  other  Diospolite  kings,  and 
the  whole  process  of  their  manufacture  is  represented  on  the  The- 
ban  sculptures.  Tliese,  though  most  probably  of  an  age  subsequent 
to  the  servitude  of  Israel,  set  most  vividly  before  us  scenes  exactly- 
parallel  to  those  described  in  the  book  of  Exodus.  The  brick- 
makers  are  evidently  captives,  working  at  heavy  burthens,  under 
taskmasters  wdio  are  plying  the  stick  and  whip  without  mercy. 
To  complete  the  illustration,  the  bricks  of  several  buildings  are 
found  mixed  with  chopped  straw ;  for  without  some  such  sub- 
stance the  line  alluvial  mud  was  too  friable  to  bind  well.  Seve- 
ral specimens  of  Egyptian  bricks  may  be  seen  in  the  British  Mu- 
seum. 

The  building  of  pyramids  seems  to  have  been  disused  in  Egypt 
after  the  Twelfth  Dynasty,  but  it  was  continued  in  Ethiopia.  The 
Nubian  pyramids  are  very  inferior  in  care  of  construction,  and 
they  furnish  one  of  the  many*  proofs  that  Ethiopian  art  was  not 
the  parent,  but  the  debased  offspring,  of  the  Egyptian.  The  en- 
trance to  the  Nubian  pyramids  is  generally  covered  by  a  temple 
and  propylasa.  Several  of  the  Egyptian  i:>yramids  also  are  con- 
nected with  temples,  and  all  doubtless  stood  within  sacred  enclo- 

*  There  are  also  several  small  brick  pyramids  in  the  Thebaid. 

f  Sir  G.  Wilkinson  conjectures  that  the  name  may  be  meant  for  Shishak,  of  the 
Twenty-second  Dynasty,  perhaps  confounded  with  some  other  king. 


NOTE  ON  EGYPTIAN  CHRONOLOGY.  105 

sures,  like  those  which  surround  the  Second  and  Third  Pyramids. 
In  fact,  the  tomb  of  an  Egyptian  was  essentially  a  temple,  conse- 
crated to  the  deities  of  Amenti. 

The  limits  of  our  work  will  not  admit,  in  general,  of  antiquarian 
discussions  on  the  scale  we  have  allotted  to  the  Pyramids  ;  but 
their  vast  antiquity,  their  existing  state,  and  the  deeply  interest- 
ing problems  they  suggest,  seemed  to  demand  that  the  reader 
should  be  put  in  possession  of  all  that  is  known  concerning  them. 
They  stand  out  as  conspicuously  on  the  comparatively  blank  page 
of  early  Egyptian  history,  as  their  forms  rise  above  the  valley  of 
the  Nile,  the  monuments  of  an  almost  unknown  chapter  in  the 
history  of  the  world. 


NOTE  ON  EGYPTIAN  CHRONOLOGY. 

The  various  systems  of  chronology  adopted  by  the  Egyptologers  are 
based  on  astronomical  calculations,  on  the  traditions  of  Manetho  and  others, 
and  in  some  degree  on  the  chronology  of  Scripture.  Enjoying,  like  the 
kindred  Chaldeans,  the  greatest  advantages  of  climate  and  horizon,  the 
Egyptians  divide  with  that  people  the  honour  of  being  the  first  cultivators 
of  astronomy.  Like  the  Chaldtean  temple-towers,  the  pyramids  had  prob* 
ably  a  connexion  with  astronomical  observation.  In  addition  to  other 
proofs,  it  has  been  discovered  that  the  passages  which  slope  inwards  from 
the  northern  face  of  these  structures  are  inclined  at  the  very  angle  which 
would  make  them  point  to  what  was  the  pole-star  at  the  epoch  of  their 
erection.  We  have  seen  the  reasons  for  ascribing  these  edifices  to  the 
Fourth  Dynasty,  probably  about  the  middle  of  the  twenty-fourth  century 
B.C.,  or  about  4000  years  ago.  At  that  time,  on  account  of  the  precession 
of  the  equinoxes,  the  north  pole  of  the  heavens  was  about  3°  44'  from  the 
star  a  Draconis.  The  latitude  of  Ghizeh,  where  the  pyramids  stand,  being 
just  30°  N.,  this  would  be,  at  all  times,  the  inchnation  of  a  tube  pointing 
to  the  true  pole.  But  tlie  altitude  of  the  then  polar  star,  at  its  two  meri- 
dian passages,  would  differ  from  this  elevation  by  the  amount  just  stated, 
and,  at  its  lower  culmination,  would  be  about  26°  16' ;  and  so  shghtly  do 
the  passages  of  the  three  principal  pyramids  differ  from  this  inclination, 
that  the  mean  is  26°  13'.  "  At  the  bottom  of  every  one  of  these  passages, 
therefore,  the  then  pole-star  must  have  been  visible  at  its  lower  culmina- 
tion, a  circumstance  which  can  hardly  be  supposed  to  have  been  uninten- 
tional, and  was  doubtless  connected  with  the  astronomical  observation  of 
that  star,  of  whose  proximity  to  the  pole,  at  the  epoch  of  the  erection  of 
these  wonderful  structures,  we  are  thus  furnished  with  a  monumental 
record  of  the  most  imperishable  nature."  *  It  is  obvious  how  complete  a 
criterion  this  discovery  would  afford  for  the  date  of  the  erection  of  the 
pyramids,  if  we  could  be  quite  sure  that  it  is  not  an  accidental  coincidence. 

*  Sir  J.  Herschel,  Outlines  of  Astronomy,  §§  319,  320,  ed.  1849. 


106  THE  HISTORY   OF  EGYPT.  [Cjtap.  YL. 

Ollior  Egyptian  monuinents,  such  as  the  famous  zodiac  in  the  temple 
at  Deiuli'rah,'.«ho\v  the  care  of  the  priests  in  taking  and  recording  astro- 
noniical  observations,  upon  which  they  based  an  elaborate  system  of  cliro- 
nology.  They  claimed  the  discovery  of  the  true  length  of  the  solar  year, 
by  means  of  llie  stars,  but  the  priests  kept  this  reckoning  to  themselves. 
Tiie  year  em])loycd  in  ordinary  computations,  both  civil  and  religious,  was 
the  "  Vague  Year"  of  3G5  days,  divided  into  twelve  months  of  30  days 
each,  with  five  days  added  after  the  twelfth.  It  was  in  use  from  a  time 
at  least  as  early  as  the  second  king  of  the  Eighteenth  Dynasty  (about 
B.C.  1500),  till  it  was  merged  in  the  Julian  year  by  Augustus  (b.c.  24). 
The  neglect  of  the  quarter  of  a  day  would  of  course,  as  in  the  Roman  cal- 
endar before  the  Julian  reform,  have  caused  the  year  to  retire  through  the 
seasons.  But  its  division  into  three  seasons  of  four  months  each  seems  to 
prove  that  they  also  used  a  "  Tropical  Year,"  that  is,  one  whose  length 
was  regulated  by  the  recurrence  of  the  seasons.  The  three  seasons  were 
called  by  names  which  the  best  authorities  interpret  as  signifying  those  of 
"Vegetation,"  "Manifestation,"  and  the  "Waters"  or  "Inundation." 
The  months  were  named  after  the  different  deities.  The  year  of  365^ 
days,  Avhich  seems  to  have  been  the  nearest  approximation  they  made  to 
the  true  length  of  the  year,  was  determined  by  the  heliacal  rising  of  Thoth 
or  Soth  (the  Dog  Star),  and  hence  w^as  called  the  "Sothic  Year."  The 
interval  between  two  coincidences  of  the  Vague  and  Sothic  years  was 
1461  of  the  former  and  14G0  of  the  latter.  This  was  called  the  "Sothic, 
or  Dog  Star  C\'cle,"  and  is  a  period  of  the  greatest  importance  in  Egyptian 
chronology.  The  ancient  writers  mention  two  Sothic  epochs,  tlie  one 
called  the  era  of  Menophres  (the  Men-ptah  of  the  monuments),  on  July 
20th,  u.c.  1322,  probably  near  the  beginning  of  the  Nineteenth  Dynasty, 
and  the  other  on  July  20th,  a.d.  139,  in  the  reign  of  Antoninus  Pius. 
There  seems  to  have  been  also  a  "Tropical  Cycle,"  at  the  end  of  which 
the  Vague  and  Tropical  years  coincided,  consisting  of  about  1500  Vague 
years ;  but  our  information  on  this  point  is  scanty  and  uncertain.  Suppos- 
ing that  the  Tropical  cycle  began  with  the  Vague  year  in  which  the  new 
moon  fell  at  or  near  the  vernal  equinox,  w'e  obtain  two  such  epochs, 
namely,  Jan.  7,  B.C.  2005,  in  the  reign  of  Amenemha  II.,  of  the  Twelfth 
Dynasty ;  and  Dec.  28,  n.c.  507,  under  Darius  Hystaspis.  Equallv  im- 
portant and  difficult  is  the  "Phoenix  Cycle,"  to  which  Herodotus  alludes 
in  his  celebrated  fable  of  the  phcenix.  From  the  astronomical  ceiling  of 
the  Kameseum  (formerly  called  the  Memnonium)  at  El-Kurneh,  we  learn 
that  this  fabled  bird  was  a  constellation,  "the  Phcenix  of  Osiris,"  corre- 
sponding probably  to  the  constellation  now  called  Cygnus.  Its  heliacal 
rising  on  tlie  first  day  of  the  Vague  year  seems  to  have  marked  the  com- 
mencement of  a  Phcenix  cycle,  which  would  therefore  be  of  the  same 
length  as  the  Sothic  cycle,  namely,  1400  Julian,  or  1461  Vague  years,  the 
very  interval  which  Tacitus  assigns  to  the  successive  returns  of  the  pha'uix. 
Tacitus  also  places  the  recurrences  of  the  cycle  in  the  reigns  of  Sesostris 
(probably  Sescrtesen  III.),  Anuisis,  and  Ptolemy  III. ;  and  Mr.  Poole  has 
shown  that  the  two  latter  known  dates  agree  fairly  well  with  those  calcu- 
lated approxinuitely  from  the  Kameseum.  These  epochs  may  be  7uore 
accurately  deduced  from  the  "  Great  Panegyrical  Year,"  an  Egvptian 
cycle,  four  of  whith  made  up  1461  Julian  years,  having  a  mean  length  of 
365 i  Juliau  years,  and  made  up  of  364^  and  366  such  years  alternately. 
If  the  Phoenix  cycle  corresponded  exactly  with  the  Panegyrical,  it  must 


NOTE   ON  EGYPTIAN  CHRONOLOGY.  107 

have  consisted  of  1461  Julian  (instead  of  Vague)  years.  The  Great 
Panegyrical  Month  contained  30  Julian  years,  and  the  Year  was  made  up 
by  intercalating  4^  or  6  years  alternately.  From  these  data  Mr.  Poole 
has  calculated  the  following  chronological  epochs : 


B.C. 

2717.     Era  of  Menes,  the  first  king  of  Egypt.    First  Great  Panegyrical  Year.   Length, 

364^  years. 
2352.     Time  of  Suphis  I.  and  II.,  kings  of  the  Fourth  Dynasty. 

Second  Great  Panegyrical  Year.     Length,  366  years. 
1986.     Time  of  Sesertesen  IIL,  fourth  king  of  the  Twelftli  Dynasty. 
Third  Great  Panegyrical  Year.     Length,  364^  years. 
First  Phoenix  Cycle. 
1622.     Fourth  Great  Panegyrical  Year.     Length,  366  years. 
1256.     Fifth  Great  Panegyrical  Year.     Length,  364|  years. 
891.     Sixth  Great  Panegyrical  Year.     Length,  366  years. 
525.     In  the  reign  of  Amasis,  of  the  Twenty-sixth  Dynasty. 

Seventh  Great  Panegyrical  Year.     Length,  364^  years. 
Second  Phoenix  Cycle. 
161.     In  the  reign  of  Ptolemy  Philometor. 

Eighth  Great  Panegyrical  Year.     Length,  366  years. 
A.D. 
205.     In  the  reign  of  Septimius  Severua. 

Ninth  Great  Panegyrical  Year.     Length,  364^  years. 


Mr.  Poole  also  gives  the  following  table  of  epochs  mentioned  on  the 
monuments,  with  their  probable  dates  : 

B.C. 

2352.     Second  Panegyrical  Year. 

Time  of  Suphis  I.  and  II.,  kings  of  the  Fourth  Dynasty,  and  builders  of  the  Great 
Pyramid. 
2005.     First  Tropical  Cycle. 

Time  of  Amenemha  II.     Twelfth  Dynasty. 
1472-1.  Date  in  the  fourth  year  of  Sethee.     Eighteenth  Dynasty. 
1442.     Date  in  the  sixteenth  year  of  Queen  Amen-nunt.     Eighteenth  Dynasty. 
1412.     Date  in  the  thirty-third  year  of  Thothmes  III.     Eighteenth  Dynasty. 
591.     Date  in  the  reign  of  Psammetichus  II.     Twenty-sixth  Dynasty. 
561.     Date  in  the  reign  of  Amasis.     Twenty-sixth  Dynasty. 

The  accession  of  the  Eighteenth  Dynasty  is  fixed,  with  a  high  degree 
of  probability,  about  B.C.  1525.  Different  opinions  are  held  as  to  the  cor- 
respondence of  this  epoch  with  the  Exodus ;  some  chronologers  placing  it 
about  the  same  time,  others  (as  Mr.  Poole)  as  much  as  125  years  earlier, 
and  others  (as  the  Rabbis  and  Lepsius)  200  years  later.  Unfortunately 
it  is  impossible  to  settle  this  epoch  independently,  as  a  point  in  Scripture 
chronology. 

The  Egyptian  priests  told  Herodotus  that  there  had  been  341  genera 
tions,  both  of  kings  and  of  high-priests,  from  Menes  to  Sethos  (the  succes- 
sor of  the  Ethiopian  Tirhaka).  This  he  calculates  as  11,340  years.  He 
adds  that,  during  this  period,  the  sun  had  "  twice  risen  where  he  now  sets, 
and  twice  set  where  he  now  rises."  This  apparently  absurd  statement  is 
explained  by  Mr.  Poole  as  referring  to  "  the  solar  risings  of  stars  having 
fallen  on  those  days  of  the  Vague  year  on  which  the  settings  fell  in  the 
time  of  Sethos  "  {Horce.  ^gyptiacoe,  p.  94). 


108  THE  HISTORY   OF  EGYPT. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


HISTORY  OF  EGYPT  FROM  THE  SHEPHERD  INVASION  TO  THE 
FINAL  CONQUEST  BY  PERSIA.     B.C.  2080?  TO  B.C.  353. 


"  High  on  his  car  Sesostris  struck  my  view, 
Whom  scepter'd  slaves  in  golden  harness  drew  : 
His  hands  *a  bow  and  pointed  javelin  hold; 
His  giant  limbs  arc  arm'd  in  scales  of  gold. 
JJetween  the  statues  Obelisks  were  placed, 
And  the  learn'd  walls  with  Hieroglyphics  graced."— Pope.  , 

THE  SHEPHEKD  KINGS,  OR  HTKSOS,  THE  FIFTEENTH,  SIXTEENTH,  AND   SEVENTEENTH   DYNASTIES  OF 
MANETHO— THEIR    CONNEXION   WITH    THE    SCRIPTURE   HISTORY — QUESTION   OF   THE   EXODUS 

CONNEXION  OF  EGYPT  WITH  GREECE — EXPULSION  OP  THE  SHEPHERDS — UNION  OF  EGYPT — 

THE  CITY  OF  THEBES— TWELFTH  AND  THIRTEENTH  DYNASTIES— EIGHTEENTH  AND  NINE- 
TEENTH, THE  CLIMAX  or  EGYPTIAN  POWER  AND  ART — EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY  :  THE  THOTH- 
MES — AMENOPH  III. — THE  VOCAL  MEMMON — THE  SUN-WORSHIPPERS — NINETEENTH  DYNASTY  : 
SETHEE  I. — RAMESES  II. — "  SESOSTRIS  " — ASIATIC  CONQUESTS— STEL^ — TEMPLES  AT  THEBES 
AND  MEMPHIS,  AND  IN  ETHIOPIA— COLOSSAL  STATUES — MEN-PTAH — TWENTIETH  DYNASTY: 
EAMESES  III. — DECLINE  OP  THE  KINGDOM— TWENTY-FIRST  DYNASTY  AT  TANIS — SEMITIC  IN- 
FLUENCE IN  EGYPT — TWENTY-SECOND  DYNASTY  AT  BUBASTIS— ASSYRIANS — SHISHAK  AND 
REHOBOAM — ZERAH  THE  CUSUITE — TWENTY-THIRD  DYNASTY  AT  TANIS — OBSCURITY  AND  DE- 
CLINE—TWENTY-FOURTH DYNASTY — BOCCHORIS  THE  WISE — TWENTY-FIFTH  DYNASTY,  OF 
ETHIOPIANS — THE  SABACOS  AND  TIRHAKAH — HOSHEA,  KING  OF  ISRAEL — SENNACHERIB 
AND  HEZEKIAH — LEGEND  OF  THE  PRIEST  SETHOS- THE  DODECARCHY — TWENTY-SIXTH  DY- 
NASTY AT  SAJiS — rSAMMETICHUS  I. — GREEK  MERCENARIES — SIEGE  OF  ASHDOD — SECESSION  OP 
THE  SOLDIERS— NEKO  OR  PHARAOH-NECHO— WAR  WITH  NEBUCHADNEZZAR — DEATH  OP 
JOSIAH — CIRCUMNAVIGATION  OP  AFRICA — NEKO's  CANAL — PSAMMETICHUS  11.- — APRIES  OB 
PHARAOU-HOPHRA — NEBUCHADNEZZAR  IN  EGYPT — WAR  WITH  CYRENE — REVOLT  OF  THE 
ARMY — DEATH  OF  APRIES — REIGN  OP  AAHMES  II.  OR  AMASIS — HIS  MONUMENTS — HIS  CHARAC- 
TER AND  HABITS — INTERNAL  PROSPERITY — INTERCOURSE  WITH  GREECE — PSAMMENITUS — 
CONQUEST  OF  EGYPT  BY  CAMBYSES — THE  TWENTY-SEVENTH,  OR  PERSIAN  DYNASTY — REVOLT 
OF  INARUS  AND  AMYRT/EUS — EGYPT  AGAIN  INDEPENDENT — TWENTY-NINTH  AND  THIRTIETH 
DYNASTIES— THE  NECTANEBOS,  ETC. — FINAL  PEKSIAN  CONQUEST — ALEX.VNDER  AND  THB 
PLOLEHIES. 

The  rule  of  the  Shepherd  Kings,  by  whom  the  Memphian  and 
other  kingdoms  were  overthrown,  is  donbly  interesting  from  its 
probable  connexion  with  sacred  history.  Unfortunately,  however, 
its  annals  are  as  obscure  as  the  Scripture  history  itself  is  rendered 
by  chronological  difficulties,  and  by  the  constant  use  of  the  title 
Pharaoli,  without  the  proper  names  of  the  respective  kings.  The 
dynasties  of  the  Ilyksos,*  or  Shepherd  Kings,  are  the  Fifteenth^ 

*  This,  their  Egyptian  name,  is  derived  by  Manetho  from  //i/A-,  a  king,  and  Sos,  a 
fthephcrd.  The  latter  word  exists  in  Coptic.  In  the  hieroglyphics  Hah  is  Mng^  and 
//«A-,  captive,  a  sense  which  Manetho  also  mentions.  This  ctj-mology  has  helped  to 
favour  the  now  exploded  opinion  that  these  "captive-shepherds"  were  the  Israelites. 
Bat  the  Egyptians  used  captive  as  a  term  of  contempt  for  foreigners ;  so  that  the  word 
may  mean  "  foreign  shepherds." 


B.C.  2080?]  THE   SHEPHERD  KINGS.  109 

Sixteenth,  and  Seventeenth.  Manetho  says  that  they  were  Arabs ; 
but  he  calls  the  six  kings  of  the  Fifteenth,  or  First  Shepherd 
Dynasty,  Phoenicians.  This  statement  is  adopted  by  Mr.  Poole, 
who  connects  the  invasion  of  the  Shepherds  with  the  great  move- 
ment of  the  Phoenicians  from  the  shores  of  the  Erythraean  Sea, 
and  with  the  expedition  of  Chedorlaomer.  Manetho  says  that 
they  took  Memphis,  and  founded  a  city  in  the  Sethroite  nome 
(probably  the  fortified  camp  of  Avaris,  the  later  Pelusium,  on  the 
eastern  frontier),  whence  they  conquered  all  Egypt.  The  primary 
object  of  this  camp,  was  to  resist  the  Assyrians,  from  whom, 
Manetho  tells  us,  they  expected  an  invasion.  He  adds  that 
they  easily  gained  possession  of  the  country  without  a  battle, 
which  has  been  explained  by  the  hypothesis  that  they  were 
brought  in  as  auxiliaries  or  mercenaries,  in  contests  between 
the  native  dynasties;  perhaps  to  aid  the  Memphians  against 
the  Thebans.  Mr.  Poole  supposes  them  to  have  been  at  first  in 
a  subordinate  position,  and  on  friendly  terms  with  some  of  the 
Egyptian  kings,  so  that  their  rule  in  Lower  and  part  of  Upper 
Egypt  was  not  inconsistent  with  that  of  the  Twelfth  and  Thir- 
teenth Dynasties  at  Thebes.  It  was  not,  he  thinks,  till  the 
close  of  the  latter  dynasty,  that  the  Shepherds  began  that 
oppressive  rule  which  made  them  hateful  to  the  Eg}^3tians,  and 
so  provoked  their  expulsion. 

'  The  first  king  of  the  Fifteenth  Dynasty  was  Salatis  or  Saites 
(about  B.  c.  2080  ?),  who  ruled  at  Memphis,  and  made  both  Upper 
and  Lower  Egypt  tributary ;  Mr.  Poole  assigns  Abraham's  visit  to 
Egypt  to  about  the  beginning  of  his  reign.  The  name  of  his 
fourth  successor  is  found  on  the  hieroglyphics  as  Assa ;  and  this 
is  the  king  to  whom  Joseph  was  prime  minister,  according  to  Mr. 
Poole's  computations. 

It  is  impossible  to  discuss  here  the  various  opinions  held  upon 
this  most  difficult  and  as  yet  undecided  question.  Its  settlement 
on  purely  chronological  grounds  is  forbidden  by  the  difficulties 
in  which  both  Egyptian  and  Scriptural  chronology  are  involved ; 
and  it  is  necessary  to  draw  other  arguments  from  the  state  of 
Egyptian  aftairs  as  described  in  the  book  of  Genesis.  The 
chronology  of  Egypt  is  now  so  far  settled,  that  the  accession  of 
the  Eighteenth  (Theban)  Dynasty  may  be  regarded  as  fixed  to 
within  a  few  years  of  b.  c.  1525.  The  era  of  the  Exodus,  on  the 
system  of  Ussher  (that  given  in  the  margin  of  our  English 
Bibles),  is  b.  c.  1491.  The  obvious  conclusion  agrees  with  the 
statement  of  Manetho,  according  to  Julius  Africanus,  that  Moses 


110  THE  HISTORY   OF  EGYPT.  [Chap.  VH. 

left  Egypt  under  tlie  first  king  of  the  Eighteenth  Dynasty,  whose 
name  was  Amos  or  Amosis.*  The  same  king,  according  to 
Josephus  (who  calls  him  Tethmosis),  expelled  the  Shepherd 
Kings;  and  there  is,  in  fact,  no  doubt  that  the  great  power  of 
the  Eigliteenth  Dynasty  was  connected  with  their  expulsion.  In 
this  change  of  dynasty  many  writers  see  a  natural  explanation  of 
the  "  new  king  who  knew  not  Joseph."  Sir  Gardner  Wilkinson, 
for  instance,  supposes  that  the  Israelites  held  their  possessions  in 
Goshen  under  the  Memphian  kings  on  the  condition  of  certain 
service,  but  that  the  conquering  Theban  dynasty  paid  no  respect 
to  the  agreement,  and  converted  the  fixed  service  into  a  cruel 
bondage.  The  same  distinguished  writer,  following  the  received 
Scriptural  chronology,  assigned  the  exodus  to  the  fourth  year  of 
Thothmcs  III.,  the  fifth  and  greatest  king  of  the  Eighteenth 
Dynasty,  arguing  that  there  is  no  explicit  statement  of  the  death 
of  Pharaoh  himself  in  the  Eed  Sea.f  So  far  from  finding  any 
difiiculty  in  the  blow  which  must  have  been  inflicted  on  Egypt, 
first  by  the  plagues,  and  then  by  the  loss  of  its  army,  he  A^iewed  the 
departure  of  the  Israelites  as  leaving  the  king  free  to  make  new 
conquests !  It  is  hard  to  believe  that,  in  such  a  sense  as  this, 
"Egypt  was  glad  when  they  departed."  Lepsius  places  the 
arrival  of  the  Israelites  under  the  Eighteenth  Dynasty,  and  the 
exodus  under  the  Nineteenth. 

Passing  over  as  hardly  worthy  of  notice  the  opposite  extreme, 
of  placing  the  exodus  before  the  Shepherd  invasion,  we  must 
give  a  brief  account  of  Mr.  Poole's  theory.  For  reasons  which  we 
cannot  stay  to  mention,  he  rejects  the  very  corner-stone  of  the 
received  chronology,  namely,  the  period  of  480  years  from  the 
exodus  to  the  building  of  Solomon's  temple,  and  places  the  exodus 
in  the  year  b.  c.  1652.  This  date  is  founded  chiefly  on  the 
numbers  given  in  the  Book  of  Judges,  combined  with  the  state- 
ment of  St.  Paul,  that  the  rule  of  the  Judges  lasted  about  450 
years,  and  confirmed  by  an  ingenious  argument  from  technical 
chronology  and  some  minor  proofs.  Then,  assigning  215  years 
to  the  sojourn  in  Egypt,  he  brings  the  migration  of  Israel  to 
B.  c.  1867,  and  the  government  of  Joseph  to  b.  c.  1876.     All  these 

*  According  to  the  Armenian  version  of  the  Chronicon  of  Euscbius,  Moses  led  the 
Jews  out  of  Eji.vpt  under  Achencheres,  the  ninth  king  of  the  Eighteenth  Dynasty.  The 
former  statement  may  rather  refer  to  tlie  flight  of  Moses  than  to  the  Exodus. 

f  In  his  Essay  on  Egyptian  History,  however,  in  Rawlinson's  Herodotus  (book  ii. 
app.  ii.  ch.  viii. ;  vol.  ii.  p.  308),  Wilkinson  says :  "  It  is  probable  that  the  exodus  took 
place  in  the  reign  of  rtathmen,"  the  son  of  Rameses  II.,  a  king  of  the  Nineteenth  Dy- 
nasty, which  is  the  date  of  the  Rabbins  and  Lepsius. 


B.C.  1652?]  DATE   OF  THE  EXODUS.  Ill 

dates  fall  within  the  dynasties  of  the  Shepherds,  whom  we  may 
easily  believe  to  have  been  Egyptianized  enough  to  account  for  the 
indications  given  in  Scripture  of  Egyptian  customs  and  religious 
usages.  On  the  other  hand,  Mr.  Poole  argues  that  many  points  of 
thenarrative  are  quite  irreconcilable  with  the  idea  that  the  Pharaohs 
of  this  period  were  native  Egyptians.  Such  are  their  cordial  recep- 
tion of  foreigners,  whom  the  Egyptians  despised  and  hated ;  and 
the  pure  despotism  of  Joseph's  Pharaoh,  whose  will  is  law,  and 
who  reduces  the  Egyptians  to  serfdom,  while  the  native  monarchs 
were  restrained  by  law,  and  set  a  high  value  on  the  attachment  of 
their  subjects.  In  the  fear  lest  the  Israelites  should  join  their 
enemies  in  some  expected  war,  Mr..  Poole  finds  an  allusion  to  the 
rival  Assyrian  dynasty  or  to  the  growing  power  of  the  native 
Theban  kings.  The  rise  of  the  new  king  who  knew  not  Joseph 
he  explains  by  the  fact  that  there  were  different  dynasties 
of  Shepherds.  Besides  the  Fifteenth,  under  whom  Joseph 
is  supposed  to  have  lived,  and  who  were  probably  Phoenicians, 
the  Sixteenth  seem  to  have  established  themselves  on  the  eastern 
frontier  about  the  same  time;  and  it  is  agreed  that  they 
were  an  Assyrian  race.  Assyi'ian  names  occur  in  the  Turin 
list  of  kings,  and  the  prophet  Isaiah  uses  this  remarkable 
expression,  "My  people  went  down  aforetime  into  Egypt,  to 
sojourn  there,  and  the  Assyrian  opj)ressed  them  without  cause."* 
Now  we  are  distinctly  told  that  the  first  king  of  the  Fifteenth 
Dynasty  fortified  his  frontier  against  the  Assyrians,  who  would 
seem  at  length  to  have  taken  Memphis,  and  founded  there  the 
Sixteenth  Dynasty. 

Such,  omitting  minor  and  more  doubtful  points,  is  the  present 
state  of  this  great  question,  so  interesting  to  every  student  of 
the  Bible.  The  internal  evidence  seems  very  evenly  balanced. 
The  former  view  has  ancient  tradition  on  its  side,  and  the  highly 
ingenious  arguments  on  which  the  latter  rests  would  tidl  at  once 
to  the  ground  if  the  key-stone  of  the  received  chronology  could  be 
maintained,  a  conclusion  for  which  there  is  much  to  be  said. 
The  uncertainty  in  which  we  are  obliged  fo  leave  the  subject  gives 
one  of  those  striking  lessons  of  which  ancient,  and  especially 
sacred,  history  is  full, — that  we  may  well  be  content  to  have 
the  great   events    of   history   preserved   for  us   in   that   broad 

*  Isaiah  Hi.  4.  This  is  quoted  as  a  part  of  Mr.  Poole's  argument ;  but  certainly  it 
seems  more  natural  to  understand  the  prophet  as  speaking  of  two  parallel  events  in  the 
history  of  Israel,  the  Egyptian  bondage,  and  the  captivity  of  the  Ten  Tribes  by  the 
Assyrians,  the  latter  a  contemporary  event. 


113  rUE  HISTORY   OF  EGYPT.  [Chap.  VII. 

outline  wliich  compels  us  to  regard  them  in  their  great  moral 
significance,  Avithout  being  Buffered  to  fritter  away  our  atten- 
tion on  unprofitable  details.  The  Pharaohs  of  Abraham,  Joseph, 
and  Moses,  are  simply  "Pharaohs"  after  all,  unnamed  rulers 
of  the  land  of  bondage,  and  our  chief  concern  is  with  the 
race  to  whom  they  were  made  the  instruments  of  God's 
designs.* 

"We  need  not  be  surprised  at  the  absence  from  the  monuments  of 
any  record  of  the  sojourn  or  departure  of  the  Israelites,  for  the 
scenes  of  brick-making  at  Thebes,  already  noticed,  can  hardly  refer 
to  them,  as  their  residence  was  in  Lower  Egypt.  In  any  case,  we  ^ 
should  not  expect  such  events  as  the  elevation  of  a  foreign  viceroy, 
or  the  calamities  of  the  exodus,  to  be  depicted  on  the  national 
monuments.  But  besides,  the  whole  period  of  the  Shepherd 
Kings  is  singularly  barren  of  monumental  records,  an  argument, 
80  for  as  it  goes,  in  favor  of  Mr.  Poole's  view. 

Of  the  Shepherd  Kings  themselves,  we  have  only  further  to  say, 
that  at  the  close  of  the  Fifteenth  Dynasty  the  native  Memphian 
kings  seem  to  have  recovered  their  power  for  a  time,  forming  the 
S&centh  and  Eighth  Dynasties  of  Manetho,  whose  accession  Mr. 
Poole  places  about  the  time  of  Joseph's  death.  They  were 
succeeded  about  b.  c.  1680,  by  the  Shepherd  Kings  of  the  Seven- 
teenth Dynasty,  whom  the  copyists  of  Manetho  confuse  with  the 
Fifteenth,  and  erroneously  represent  as  consisting  partly  of  Shep- 
herds and  partly  of  Thebans.  The  whole  relations  of  these 
Shepherd  Kings  to  Egypt  concur  with  the  monuments  of  preceding 
and  later  rulers  to  show  how  closely  the  Egyptian  monarchy  was 
concerned  with  the  Semitic  races  of  Western  Asia. 

But  other  most  interesting  relations,  namely  with  Europe, 
now  come  into  view.  The  land  of  Geeece,  whose  brilliant  his- 
tory seems  to  wait  till  we  can  emerge  from  the  obscurer 
annals  of  the  East,  now  begins  to  loom  across  the  waters  of 
the  Mediterranean.  Her  earliest  traditions  point  to  Egj-pt  and 
Phoenicia  as  the  sources  of  her  civilization.  "We  are  not 
about  to  recall  Cecrops  and  Cadmus,  Danaus  and  ^gyptus, 
from  the  limbo  of  mythology,  to  which  recent  scholarship 
has  consigned  them;  and  yet  it  is  worth  while  to  remember 
the  distinction  between  what  is  mythical  and  what  is  traditional  in 
the  uncertain  ages  of  a  nation's  history.     The  poetical  tempera- 


*  The  whole  subject  will  demand  some  further  notice  in  the  next  chapter,  in  connex- 
ion with  the  Egyptian  and  other  traditions  about  the  Exodus. 


TRADITIONS  RESPECTING  GREECE.  113 

ment  of  the  Greeks  so  inextricably  mingled  these  two  elements, 
that  we  have  no  choice  bnt  to  refer  both  back  to  a  period  before 
the  commencement  of  trustworthy  history.  But  to  affirm  as 
certain  the  falsehood  of  these  legends,  is  to  convert  our  want 
of  knowledge  into  an  ignorance  more  positive  than  that  which 
was  wont  to  accept  them  as  historic  facts.  The  influence  of 
Egyptian  civilization  on  Gi'eece  is  shown  in  her  extant  works 
of  art,  almost  as  certainly  as  Phoenician  influence  is  traced  in 
the  enduring  forms  of  the  alphabet  she  has  transmitted  to  all 
Europe.  The  traditions  of  Egypt  as  well  as  Greece  point  to  the 
times  of  the  Shepherd  Kings  and  the  Eighteenth  Dynasty  as  the 
period  when  this  influence  began ;  and  it  is  reasonable  to  sup- 
pose that  the  expulsion  of  the  Shepherds  may  have  driven  a  wave 
of  mingled  Egyptian  and  Phoenician  population  to  the  shores  of 
Greece.  It  is,  to  say  the  least,  curious  to  find  "  Cecrops  the 
Saite  "  as  the  traditional  founder  of  the  city  of  Athena,  the  god- 
dess identified  by  the  Greeks  with  the  Egyptian  Neith,  who  was 
worshipped  at  Sais,  a  city  which  belonged  to  the  Shepherds  of 
the  Fifteenth  Dynasty.  Cadmns,  again,  the  traditional  founder  of 
Thebes,  is  sometimes  called  an  Egyptain,  sometimes  a  Phoenician, 
and  both  he  and  Danaus  are  represented  as  leaders  of  the  Shep- 
herds when  they  left  Egypt,  in  the  curious  account  of  the  exodus 
preserved  by  Diodorus.*  That  Egypt  had  begun  to  concern  her- 
self in  the  affairs  of  the  Mediterranean  long  before  the  real  history 
of  Greece  begins,  is  proved  by  the  representation  of  a  sea-fight 
with  the  Cretans  and  Carians  about  the  end  of  the  thirteenth 
century  b.c.  'Not  can  we  believe  that  the  notices  in  Herodotus 
of  the  intercourse  of  both  Greeks  and  Trojans  with  Egypt  at  the 
time  of  the  Trojan  war  are  wholly  fictitious,  though  they  cannot 
be  accepted  as  affording  the  slightest  materials  for  history.  On 
the  other  hand,  when  the  Greek  copyists  of  Manetho  undertake 
to  tell  us  that  the  deluge  of  Deucalion  was  in  the  time  of  Mis- 
phramuthosis  (Thothmes  IL),  the  fourth  or  fifth  king  of  the  Eigh- 
teenth Dynasty,  and  that  Armais  was  the  Danaus  who  fled  from 
his  brother  JEgyptus  (Sethosis)  and  founded  Argos,  we  can  only 
suppose  that  they  are  inserting  the  legends  of  Hellas  at  those 
points  in  the  Egyptian  annals  most  consonant  with  their  own 
theories  of  chronology. 

The  Shepherds  were  at  last  expelled  by  the  kings  of  the 
Eighteenth  Dynasty,  who  had  succeeded  to  the  power  established 

*  See  the  following  chapter  ;  and  for  a  full  account  of  these  traditions,  see  Poole, 
Rorce  JEgyptiacm,  pp.  185 — 187. 

VOL.  I. S 


114  THE  HISTORY  OF  EGYPT.  [Chap.  VH. 

at  ThcLes  Ly  those  of  tlie  Eleventh,  Twelfth,  and  Thirteenth. 
Were  we  writing  the  history  of  Egypt  for  its  own  sake,  rather 
than  in  relation  to  tlie  whole  world,  we  should  hut  have  reached 
the  threshold  of  the  subject,  for  it  was  under  this  great  line  of 
Thehan  kings  that  the  land  reached  that  climax  of  civilization, 
art,  and  conquest,  which  is  recorded  on  its  monuments.  Except 
the  pyramids  and  the  tombs  around  them,  those  monuments — the 
vast  temples,  with  their  obelisks  and  sphinxes,  the  huge  colossal 
statues,  and  the  paintings  of  life  on  the  tombs  of  Tliebes— belong 
almost  entirely  to  the  period  we  arc  approaching.  From  this 
period,  too,  the  Greeks  derived  those  traditions  of  Egyptian 
prowess  which  they  personified  in  the  conqueror  Sesostris.  To 
preserve  the  continuity  of  the  Egyptian  history,  and  to  prepare 
for  its  connexion  with  that  of  the  Hebrew  and  Assyrian  monarch- 
ies, we  must  follow  its  annals  considerably  below  the  epoch  of 
the  exodus. 

The  city  of  No,  Na- Amun,  or  Amun-hi  (the  abode  of  Ammon), 
a  title  which  the  Greeks  translated  Diospolis  (the  City  of  Jove), 
had  the  same  precedence  in  Upper,  that  Memphis  had  in  Lower 
Egypt.  Hence  it  was  called  Ap  or  Ape  (the  head  or  capital) ; 
which  became,  with  the  feminine  article.  Tape,  in  the  Memphian 
dialect  Thape  ;  whence  the  Greek  TlieboB,  and  our  Tuebes.  The 
accidental  coincidence  was  naturally  improved  by  an  assimilation 
of  the  legends  of  the  Egyptian  and  Boeotian  Thebes.  The  Egyp- 
tian city  was  fabled  to  have  a  hundred  gates,  eacli  capable  of  send- 
ing forth  an  army  complete  with  its  chariots.  Thebes  stood  about 
420  miles  above  Ileliopolis,  and  125  below  Ele])liantine,  by  the 
river.  Its  original  site  appears  to  have  been  on  the  right  or  east- 
ern bank  ;  but  great  buildings,  including  the  necropolis,  were 
erected  in  what  was  called  the  "  Libyan  suburb,"  on  the  western 
side  ;  extending  up  to,  and  he^\^l  into,  the  Libyan  mountain.  The 
ruins  of  the  city  and  suburb  cover  a  space  of  about  two  miles  from 
north  to  south  and  four  from  east  to  west,  in  which  the  villages 
of  Karnak  and  El-Uksor  (Luqsor),  on  the  east  side,  and  El-lvurneh 
and  Medinet~Abou  on  the  west,  seem  lost.  Tlie  names  of  these 
villages  serve  to  describe  the  positions  of  the  ruins,  which  for 
extent  and  grandeur  are  the  most  wonderful  in  the  world.  The 
great  traveller,  Belzoni,  thus  records  his  first  impressions  on  find- 
ing himself  amidst  them  : — "  It  appeared  to  me  like  entering  a 
city  of  giants,  who,  after  a  long  conflict,  were  all  destroyed,  leav- 
ing the  ruins  of  their  tem])les  as  the  only  proof  of  their  former 
existence."     In  antiquity,  Thebes  must  yield  to  Abydos,  Her- 


B.C.  2080.]       THE  TWELFTH  DYNASTY  AT  THEBES.  115 

monthis,  and  other  cities  of  Upper  Egypt,  wliicli  are  mentioned 
on  the  altar  of  King  Papi,  in  the  Tnrin  Museum,  on  which  Thebes 
itself  is  not  named.  The  First  and  Second  Dynasties  ruled,  as 
we  have  seen,  at  This,  the  later  Abydos,  about  500  years  before 
Thebes  became  the  capital.  Its  rise  to  be  the  seat  of  the  Eleventh 
Dynasty  was  about  contemporary  with  the  establishment  of  the 
ninth  at  Heracleopolis  ;  and  its  earliest  monuments  are  the  tombs 
of  the  Enentefs  of  the  Ninth  Dynasty,  and  the  vestiges  of  tem- 
ples built  by  Sesertesen  and  Amenemha  I.,  the  first  two  Kings 
of  the  Twelfth  Dynasty.  Thebes  seems  to  have  succeeded  to  the 
smaller  city  of  Hermonthis,  as  Abydos  did  to  This. 

Of  the  Eleventh  Dynasty  (  e.g.  2200 — 2080)  we  have  already 
spoken.  It  ends  with  Amenemha  I.,  and  the  Twelfth  begins  with 
his  son  and  co-regent,  Sesertesen  (or  Osirtasen)  I.,  the  first  great 
Egyptian  conqueror.  In  his  name  we  trace  the  Sesostris  of  the 
Greeks.  But  the  identification  goes  little  beyond  the  name  ;  for 
we  should  seek  in  vain  for  any  Egyptian  king  whose  personal  his- 
tory answers  to  tlie  exploits  related  of  Sesostris.  Under  such 
names  as  Sesostris  and  Serairamis  the  Greeks  were  accustomed  to 
gather  into  one  the  stories  told  them  of  several  kings  and  queens ; 
just  as  the  romance  and  ballad  writers  of  the  middle  ages  dealt 
with  the  names  of  Arthur  and  Charlemagne,  Coeur-de-Lion  and 
Robin  Hood.  Passing  over  Amenemha  II.,  in  whose  reign  we  have 
seen  that  a  tropical  cycle  began  (b.c.  2005),  and  Sesertesen  II.,  we 
come  to  Sesertesen  III.,  who  has  perhaps  the  best  claim  to  be  the 
personal  type  of  Sesostris,  as  Sethos  and  Rameses  II.,  of  the  Nine- 
teenth fabled  Dynasty,  most  nearly  answer  to  the  greatest  exploits 
of  that  monarch.  The  only  example  of  the  deification  of  a  de- 
ceased Egyptian  king  in  early  times  is  in  the  worship  which  we 
see  on  the  monuments  paid  to  Sesertesen  HI.  by  his  successors  of 
the  Eighteenth  Dynasty ;  and  this  may  explain  Manetho's  state- 
ment, that  Sesostris  was  placed  by  the  Egyptians,  next  after  Osiris, 
the  youngest  of  the  gods.  The  first  Phoenix  cycle  commenced 
during  his  reign,  b.c.  1986.  In  his  successor,  Amenemha  III.,  we 
may  probably  trace  the  Mceris  of  the  Greeks,  as  his  praenomen 
bears  some  resemblance  to  that  name,  and  he  is  said  by  Manetho 
to  have  built  the  labyrinth  in  the  Arsinoite  nome  (the  Faioum) 
for  his  tomb,  and  his  name  has  been  discovered  on  its  ruins.* 
Another  great  work  which  bears  his  name  is  the  lake  Mceris,  in 
the  same  nome,  the  improvement  of  which,  for  the  purpose  of  regu- 

*  Herodotus  erroneously  a.ssigns  it  to  the  twelve  kings  who  reigned  before  Psam- 
metichus. 


116  THE   HISTORY   OF  EG^TT.  [Chap.  VH. 

lating  the  inuiidatioE,  was  proLably  u  work  of  the  Twelfth  Dynas- 
ty. The  Greeks  seem,  liowever,  to  liavc  used  the  name  of  Mceris 
ahnost  as  vaguely  as  Sesostris.  Herodotus  assigns  a  date  to 
Mceris,  nine  hundred  years  before  his  own  time,  that  is,  about 
1355  u.c.  This  is  quite  inconsistent  with  the  time  of  Amenemha 
III.,  but  it  agrees  very  nearly  with  the  era  of  Menophres  (b.c. 
1322),  which  is  one  of  the  fixed  points  of  Egyptian  chronology  ; 
so  that  Menophres  would  be  a  Moiris.  There  remain  three  kings 
and  a  queen  of  no  imi)ortance.  The  dynasty  lasted  about  160 
years.  Tlie  conquest  of  Ethiopia  is  assigned  to  the  kings  of  this 
dynasty,  who  built  a  fortress  in  that  country  at  Samneh,  as  well 
as  the  city  of  Abydos,  in  place  of  Tliis,  in  Upper  Egypt.  Among 
the  fragments  of  their  monuments  in  the  Uritish  Museum,  is  a 
mutilated  wooden  statue  of  King  An.  The  Thirteenth,  which 
began  about  b.c.  1920,  fills  uj)  the  interval  of  400  years  to  the 
accession  of  the  Eighteenth.  They  were  probably  tributary  to 
the  Shepherd  Kings,  but  extended  their  power  into  Ethiopia.* 

The  Thirteenth  Dynasty  was  succeeded  at  Thebes  by  the 
Eighteenth  (about  e.g.  1525),  and  this  by  the  Nineteenth  (about 
B.C.  1340).  Under  these  two  dynasties  Egypt  reached  her  climax 
of  power  and  splendour.  The  Tiventieih  Dynasty  (about  b.c.  1 220) 
witnessed  the  decline  of  the  Tlieban  kingdom,  though  with  a  tem- 
porary revival  under  Rameses  III.  Tlie  names  and  nimibers  of 
the  Eighteenth  and  Nineteenth  Dynasties  are  evidently  confused 
by  the  copyists  of  Manetho  ;  but  the  splendid  monuments  of  these 
kings  supply  more  accurate  information.  It  is,  in  fact,  on  the 
temples  and  other  great  edifices  that  the  political  history  of  Egypt 
is  inscribed,  M'hile  the  pictures  in  the  tombs  exhibit  the  common 
life  of  the  Egyptians.  They  are  arranged  by  Mr.  Poole  in  three 
divisions  : — first  nine  sovereigns  of  the  Eighteenth  Dynasty  ;  then 
five  of  an  intrusive  race,  probably  contemporary  with  some  of  the 
former ;  and  finally,  eight  more,  including  the  last  of  the  Eigh- 
teenth Dynasty  and  the  seven  of  the  Kineteenth.  We  give  the 
names  of  these  kings  as  they  are  read  on  the  monuments. 

Aah-mes  (Amos  or  Amosis),  the  first  king  of  the  Eighteenth 
Dynasty,  seems  to  have  expelled  the  Shepherds  from  the  greater 
part  of  Egyi)t,  and  to  have  imposed  tribute  on  Ethiopia.  The 
quaiTies  contain  records  of  temples  built  by  him  both  at  Thebes 

*  The  Fourteenth  Dynasty,  of  76  kings,  is  said  by  Manetho  to  have  reigned  at  Xois, 
in  the  north  of  the  Delta,  for  184  or  484  years.  This  seems  to  have  been  a  petty  local 
kingdom,  tributary  first  to  the  Memphites,  and  afterwards  to  the  Shepherds,  and  ultimate- 
ly swallowed  up  in  the  rule  of  the  Eighteenth  Dvnastv. 


B.C.  1525— 1340  ?  ]    THE  EIGHTEENTH  DYNASTY.  117 

and  Memj^his  ;  and  an  inscription  in  the  tomb  of  a  chief  manner 
who  served  him  proves  that  Egypt  was  now  becoming  a  maritime 
power.  In  his  reign,  too,  we  first  see  on  the  monuments  those 
chariots  and  horses  which  are  so  conspicuous  in  the  military 
history  of  Egypt.  They  were  doubtless  introduced  from  Asia.* 
His  successors  extended  the  rule  of  Egypt  over  Ethiopia  to  the 
south,  and  as  far  as  Mesopotamia  to  the  north-east,  and  built  the 
temple  of  Amen-ra  (now  known  by  the  name  of  Karnak)  and 
other  great  edifices  at  Thebes.  Egypt  now  obtained  the  empire 
of  TVestern  Asia,  formerly  held  by  the  Chaklgeans.  It  has  caused 
surprise  that  we  have  no  record  of  the  collisions  into  which  these 
conquests  would  naturally  have  brought  the  Pharaohs  with  the 
Israelites,  either  in  the  Scripture  history  or  on  the  monuments  of 
Egypt,  and  this  has  been  used  as  an  argument  for  the  later  date 
of  the  exodus.  But  as  the  march  of  armies  between  Egypt  and 
Assyria  doubtless  lay,  as  we  know  it  to  have  lain  later,  along  the 
maritime  plain  of  Philistia  and  the  valley  of  Coele-Syria,  we  may 
well  believe  that  the  Egyptian  conquerors  left  the  hills  and  valleys 
of  Palestine  to  be  fought  for  by  the  Israelites  and  the  old  inhabi- 
tants. That,  in  fact,  they  made  no  conquests  in  the  country,  ex- 
cept in  the  maritime  plain,  is  proved  by  the  occurrence  of  Philis- 
tine names,  and  such  names  only,  on  their  monuments.  But  the 
absence  of  any  record  does  not  exclude  the  possibility  of  their 
having  passed  through  the  country  and  exacted  tribute.  Of  the 
four  kings  bearing  the  name  of  Thothmes,  the  third  seems  to  have 
been  the  greatest  monarch  of  the  dynasty.  He  began  his  reign 
by  shaking  off  the  control  of  the  queen  Amen-nunt,  whose  power 
is  attested  by  the  obelisks  she  set  up  in  front  of  the  temple  of 
Amen-ra,  and  who  appears  to  have  been  a  foreigner,  perhaps  one 
of  the  queens  to  whom  the  Greeks  gave  the  name  Semiramis. 
Manetho  ascribes  to  Thothmes  III.  (Mephramuthosis)  the  expul- 
sion of  the  Shepherd  Kjngs  from  all  Egypt  except  Avaris,  and  he 
seems  to  have  carried  his  conquests  as  far  as  Nineveh.  He  erected 
many  great  works  of  art  at  Thebes,  and  his  time  is  peculiarly  rich 
in  those  tomb-paintings  which  reveal  to  us  the  private  life  of  the 
Egyptians.  Our  Museum  possesses  the  head  and  arm  of  his 
colossal  statue  in  red  granite,  found  at  Karnak  by  Belzoni.  In 
the  reign  of  his  grandson,  Thothmes  IV.,  the  Shepherd  Kings  are 
said  by  Manetho  to  have  finally  left  Egypt  under  a  capitulation. 
Three  others  of  these  kings  bore  the  name  Amenoph,  from  which 
the   Memnon  of  the   Greeks  is   undoubtedly  derived,  though, 

*  This  is  an  incidental  argumeut  for  the  later  date  of  the  exodus. 


118  THE  HISTORY  OF  EGYPT.  [Chap.  VH. 

as  in  the  case  of  Sesostris,  we  sliould  in  vain  attempt  to  trace  in 
the  legends  of  Menmon  the  liistory  of  either  of  the  Egyptian 
Amcnophs.  The  Greeks  themselves  recognized  their  Menmon 
more  particuhirly  in  Amenoph  III.  (the  Amenoijhis  of  Manetho), 
one  of  the  latest  kings  of  the  dynasty.  One  of  the  two  colossal 
statues  of  Ameno])!!  III.,  seated  in  front  of  the  great  temple  whicli 
he  Luilt  in  the  western  suburb  of  Tliebes,  was  the  celebrated 
"  vucal  Menmon."  These  statues  are  of  breccia,  47  feet  high, 
and  53  above  tlie  plain,  with  the  pedestals.  The  one  in  question 
was  broken  in  half  in  ancient  times  (perhaps  by  Cambyses),  and 
repaired  with  several  layers  of  sandstone.  The  British  Museum 
possesses  a  very  perfect  and  beautiful  copy  of  the  vocal  Memuon, 
which  was  found  near  it,  a  colossal  statue  in  black  breccia,  9  ft. 
6  in.  high,  besides  also  another  smaller  copy.  In  the  Greek  my- 
thology, Memnon  was  the  son  of  tlie  Morning ;  and  it  was  said  that 
his  statue,  on  the  Libyan  plains  of  Thebes,  greeted  the  first  beams 
of  the  rising  sun  by  uttering  a  musical  note  as  from  a  harp-string. 
The  statue  itself,  which  still  occupies  its  throne,  bearing  on  its 
back  the  name  of  Amenoph,  with  the  title  of  "  Pkra  (the  Sun, 
equivalent  to  Pharaoh),  lord  of  Truth,"  is  inscribed  with  the  attes- 
tations of  persons  who  had  heard  the  sound.  The  explanation  of 
the  mystery  was  reserved  for  this  age  of  hard  science.  Sir  Gard- 
ner "Wilkinson  found  in  the  lap  of  the  colossus  a  stone  whicli,  on 
being  struck  with  a  hammer,  emitted  a  metallic  sound,  such  that 
tlie  peasants,  whom  he  had  placed  to  listen  below,  said,  "  You 
are  striking  brass  ; "  a  fact  the  more  remarkable,  as  Strabo,  who 
heard  the  sound,  says  it  seemed  to  him  like  the  effect  of  a  slight 
blow.  A  priest  might  easily  have  been  concealed  in  the  position 
occupied  by  "Wilkinson  ;  and  thus  we  find  the  same  spirit  of 
priestcraft  3000  years  ago  pi-ompting  to  devices,  which  have  their 
parallel  in  the  blood  of  St.  Januarius  and  the  winking  Madonnas 
of  our  own  age.*  The  temple,  in  front  of  which  these  two  colossi 
stood  with  other  statues  and  obelisks  leading  up  to  it,  is  now  a  heap 

*  It  is  but  fair  to  mention  that  so  high  an  authority  as  Mr.  Poole  still  prefers  to 
seek  an  explanation  in  natural  causes.  Humboldt  tells  us  of  rocks  from  the  creyices 
of  which  the  heated  air  rushes  with  a  sort  of  musical  sound ;  and  the  author  has 
observed  the  same  thing  in  slightly  porous  earthenware.  But  even  if  this  explanation 
were  true  of  the  stone  of  the  statue,  when  really  heated  by  the  sun,  it  would  not 
explain  the  sound  at  the  moment  ofsu7irise,  before  the  stone  had  time  to  become  hot. 
Mr.  Poole's  objection,  that  "  such  a  deception  could  hardly  have  been  carried  on  so 
long  without  detection,"  is  answered  by  the  whole  history  of  similar  impostures, 
especially  when  we  remember — what  is  the  juggler's  stronghold — the  willingness  of  an 
admiring  observer  to  be  deceived. 


B.C.  1340  ?  ]        THE   SUN  WORSHIPPERS  IN  EGYPT.  ^19 

of  ruins,  having  probably  been  destroyed  by  Cambyses  ;  and  the 
two  colossi  alone  remain  standing.  Behind  them  were  found  two 
other  colossal  heads  of  Amenoph  III.,  now  in  the  British  Museum, 
which  also  possesses  a  third,  more  mutilated.  In  these  the  face 
is  remarkable  for  lips  much  thicker  than  the  ordinary  Egyptian 
type,  an  indication  which  one  is  tempted  to  connect  with  the 
Ethiopian  origin  ascribed  to  Memnon  by  Homer  ;  but  the  early 
Greeks  seem  to  have  applied  the  name  of  Ethiopia  to  Upper 
Egypt.*  The  temple  of  El  Uksor  (Luqsor),  on  the  east  of  the 
Nile,  was  begun  by  Amenoph  III.  and  enlarged  by  Rameses  XL, 
who  shares  with  Amenoph  the  fame  of  the  traditional  Memnon. 
A  tablet  found  at  Samneh,  recording  the  conquests  of  Amenoph 
in  Ethiopia,  is  now  in  the  British  Museum. 

Amenoph  III.  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  Hor-em-heb,  (the 
Orus  or  Horus  of  Manetho),  of  wdiom  we  know  little  beyond  the 
record,  at  Silsilis  {Jebel-es-Selseleh)^  of  a  successful  expedition 
against  some  negro  tribes.  Among  his  works  of  art  was  an  ave- 
nue of  colossal  crio-sphinxesf  in  front  of  the  great  temple  at  Karnak. 
One  of  the  rams'  heads  may  be  seen  in  the  British  Museum, 
which  also  possesses  two  granite  statues  of  King  Horus.  His 
reign  marks  the  epoch  of  a  curious  episode  in  Egyptian  history. 
Between  him  and  Rameses  I.,  who  was  undoubtedly  his  son  and 
successor,  the  lists  of  Manetho  give  the  names  of  five  kings,  who 
appear  to  be  foreign  intruders  ;  and  Eusebius  says  that,  "  in  the 
reign  of  Amenophis,  the  Ethiopians,  migrating  from  the  river  In- 
dus, came  and  dwelt  near  to  Egypt."  The  monuments  of  these 
rulers  still  exist,  though  greatly  defaced,  doubtless  by  the  political 
and  religious  zeal  of  their  successors,  and  show  them  to  have  been 
worshippers  of  the  sun,  and  of  no  other  symbol  of  the  Deity. 
They  were  probably  of  the  great  eastern  Cushite  race,  who  were 
settled  from  a  very  early  age  in  the  country  betwen  Persia  and 
India.  They  seem  to  have  been  allied  to  the  royal  family  of  Egypt, 
perhaps  owing  to  the  conquests  of  Amenoph  III.,  whom  Sir  Gard- 
ner Wilkinson  supposes  to  have  been,  in  part  at  least,  of  their 
race,  and  to  have  introduced  their  form  of  worship.  They  seem 
to  have  been  expelled  by  Horus  after  a  rule  of  about  30  years. 

We  now  approach  the  grandest  period  of  Egyptian  history,  the 
rule  of  the  Nineteenth  Dynasty,  and  the  reign  of  the  great 
Rameses.     The  first  king  of  that  name  was  the  last  of  the  Eigh- 

*  There  is  also  still  the  question  whether,  in  the  original  legend,  Memnon,  the  son 
of  the  7norning,  may  not  have  been  one  of  the  eastern  or  Asiatic  Cushites. 
\  Figures  with  the  body  of  a  lion  and  the  head  of  a  ram. 


120  THE  HISTORY   OF  EGYPT.  [Chap.  VIL 

teeiith  Dynasty,  and  lii.s  reign  was  short  and  insignificant ;  but 
he  is  tlie  ].ropcr  head  of  the  Nindeenth  iJynastij,  wliic-h  begins 
(about  B.C.  1340,  Poole  ;  1324,  Wilkinson),  with  his  son  Sethee  I. 
(or  Osiri),  the  Sethos  of  Manetho,  and,  in  part,  the  Sesostris  of  the 
Greeks.  His  reign  is  marked  by  one  of  the  finest  monuments  of 
Egyptian  art,  the  grand  "  Hall  of  Columns "  in  the  temple  of 
Karnak,  and  by  the  most  splendid  tomb  among  those  of  the  The- 
ban  kino-s.  On  the  outside  of  the  north  wall  of  the  former  are  de- 
pictcd  his  exploits  in  war,  the  chief  of  them  being  the  conquest 
of  the  Kheeta,  or  Hittites  of  the  valley  of  the  Orontes.  Casts  of 
coloured  bas-reliefs  of  similar  subjects,  from  the  tombs  of  Sethos 
and  other  kings  of  this  dynasty,  arc  in  the  British  Museum,  whicb 
contains  also  a  wooden  statue  of  Sethos,  found  in  his  tomb.  The 
Sethenm,  a  small  temple  of  this  king  to  Amen-Ea,  with  a  chapel 
to  the  founder's  father,  Rameses  I.,  is  the  northernmost  of  the  ruins 
at  El-Kurneli^  the  western  suburb  of  Thebes.  The  glories  of  the 
monarchy  culminated  in  his  son,  Rameses  II.  the  Great,  the  chief 
prototypeof  the  Greek  Sesostris,  though  it  does  not  appear  that  his 
conquests  extended  so  far  as  those  of  the  Thothmeses  and  the  Ame- 
nophs.  He  reigned  sixty-six  (or  sixty-one)  years,  partly,  it  Avould 
seem,  in  conjunction  with  his  father  :  his  sixty-first  year  is  men- 
tioned on  the  monuments.  The  chief  of  his  wars,  depicted  on  his 
monuments,  and  related  in  a  hieratic  papyrus,  was  one  against  the 
Hittites.*  AVe  cannot  stay  to  discuss  the  far  wider  conquests  as- 
cribed by  Herodotus,  Strabo,  and  others  to  Sesostris,  as  far  as  Scy- 
thia  and  Thrace  to  the  north,  and  by  naval  expeditions  on  the  Ery- 
thrsean  Sea  to  the  south.  The  former  exploits  may  refer  to  tribes 
near  the  Caucasus  or  in  Asia  Minor,  and  both  seem  to  describe  the 
widest  range  attained  at  any  time  by  the  Egyptian  arms.  A  very 
interesting  point  in  the  story  of  Sesostris  in  Herodotus  relates  to 
the  monumental  tablets  {stelae)  he  set  up  among  the  nations  which 
he  conquered.  Such  a  monument  is  still  seen  in  the  face  of  the 
rock,  on  the  old  road  from  Sardis  to  Smyrna,  the  place  named  by 
Herodotus,  and  very  nearly  resembling  his  description.  It  is  a  fig- 
ure wearing  a  tiara,  or  high  cap,  and  carrying  a  bow  and  spear,  with 
a  few  rude  hieroglyphic  marks  in  one  corner  of  the  slab,  in  which 
some  have  found  the  name  of  Rameses  11.  This  reading,  however, 
is  by  no  means  certain,  the  figure  is  far  below  the  standard  of  art 
of  the  Nineteenth  Dynasty,  and  there  are  even  doubts  as  to  its  be- 
ing Egyptian  at  all.     In  Syria,  however,  on  the  rocks  above  the 

*  The  batteriug-ram  and  testudo  appear  in  sieges  on  the  monuments  of  Rameses  II. 


B.C.  1327—1366  ?  ]        WORKS   OF  RAMESES  II.  121 

mouth  of  the  Lyciis,  memorials  of  this  sort  are  found  bearing  the 
name  of  Rameses  II. ;  and  Strabo  mentions  a  tablet  on  the  shore  of 
the  Red  Sea  recording  the  conquests  of  Sesostris  over  the  Troglo- 
dytie.  Rameses  showed  both  magnanimity  and  humour  in  his  treat- 
ment of  the  conquered  nations,  if  we  may  believe  the  story  of  Herod- 
otus, that  the  tablets  bore  male  or  female  emblems  according  to  the 
resistance  he  had  met  with.  The  latter  were  set  up  in  the  part  of 
Syria,  called  Palestine,  that  is,  among  the  Philistines,  not  the  Jews, 
who  are  never  mentioned  on  the  king's  monuments.  Herodotus  ex- 
pressly states  that  Sesostris  was  king  both  of  Egypt  and  Etliiopia, 
and  we  have  abundant  proof  that  the  latter  country  was  subject  to 
the  kings  of  the  Eighteenth  and  Nineteenth  Dynasties.  The  histo- 
rian's mention  of  numerous  captives  brought  home  by  the  conquer- 
or, to  be  employed  on  public  works,  agrees  exactly  with  the  monu- 
ments of  all  the  great  kings  of  Egypt-  The  works  performed  by  these 
captives  for  Sesostris,  he  says,  were  the  canals  which  intersected  the 
whole  face  of  Egypt,  and  the  transport  of  stones  to  build  the  temple 
of  Hephaestus  (the  Egyptian  Ptah).  It  is  likely  enough  that  Rame- 
ses II.  improved  the  canals,  which  were  for  the  most  part  the  work 
of  earlier  kings,  and  it  is  now  proved,  by  inscriptions  beside  the 
banks,  that  he  was  the  original  maker  of  the  canal  to  unite  the 
Mediterranean  and  the  Red  Sea.  The  work  was  resumed  by  ISTeko, 
whose  names  it  bears,  but  it  appears  never  to  have  been  finished. 
Great  remains  of  his  vast  buildings  still  exist,  both  in  Upper 
and  Lower  Egypt.  He  adorned  and  enlarged  the  temj^le  of  Ptah 
at  Memphis,  the  site  of  wdiich  is  marked  by  a  beautiful  colossal 
statue  of  him  in  granite,  but  mutilated  and  fallen  on  its  fabe."^ 
Beyond  the  limits  of  Upper  Egypt  he  left  imperishable  memorials 
in  the  rock-hewn  temples  of  Abou-Simbel,  above  the  second  cata- 
ract, faced  with  his  colossal  statues,  the  largest  in  the  world  ;  be- 
sides other  monuments  in  Nubia.  But  his  greatest  works  were  at 
Thebes  itself.  Besides  adding  to  the  temples  of  El-Karnak  and 
El-Uksor,  he  erected  a  magnificent  temjjle  on  the  western  side  of 
the  Nile,  at  the  very  edge  of  the  desert.  This  is  doubtless  the  edi- 
fice described  by  Diodorus  Siculus  as  the  tomb  of  Osymandyas. 
It  has  been  called  by  modern  writers  the  Memnonium,  but  now 
more  properly  the  Rameseum.  Its  ruins,  near  the  village  of  El- 
Kurneh,  though  much  defaced,  still  bear  the  marks  of  that  real 
beauty,  as  well  as  magnificence,  which  belongs  to  the  best  period 

*  Some  idea  may  be  formed  of  this  colossus  from  the  fist,  now  in  the  British  Museum. 
Its  length,  from  the  wrist  to  the  knuckle  of  the  middle  finger,  is  32  inches,  and  its  width, 
across  the  knuckles,  ZOi  inches. 


123  THE  HISTORY  OF  EGYPT.  [Chap.  VH. 

of  Egyptian  art.  For  those  who  have  only  seen  a  few  fragments 
exhibited  in  half-lighted  rooms  under  a  cloudy  sky,  or  the  well- 
meant  imitation  of  a  temple  in  a  reduced  plaster  model,  can  form 
no  idea  of  the  im])ression  made  even  by  the  ruins  of  tliesc  edifices, 
wlicn  seen  in  tlie  midst  of  a  vast  plain,  and  with  the  deep  shad- 
ows cast  by  a  southern  sun.  Only  in  their  proper  place  can  be 
seen  how  gracefully  the  papyrus-stemmed  shafts  and  lotus-leaved 
or  Isis-headed  capitals  of  the  pillars  blend  with  the  masses  they 
support,  or  how  the  whole  style  harmonizes  with  the  genius  of  the 
people  and  their  religion.  Our  space  does  not  permit  a  description 
of  an  Egyptian  temple,  with  its  towering  propylaea,  its  sijacious 
colonnaded  court,  its  first  and  second  sanctuary  supported  by  many 
pillars,  and  its  various  chambers,  the  whole  approached  by  ah 
avenue  of  obelisks  and  sphinxes  ;  and  the  details  would  be  scarcely 
intelligible  without  a  plan,*  But  we  must  mention  the  sculptures 
ojj  the  walls,  from  which  we  learn  the  stoiy  of  the  family  and  reign 
of  Rameses,  and  the  astronomical  ceiling  in  one  of  the  chamljers, 
which  forms  the  most  precious  monument  of  Egyptian  science. 
We  learn  too  from  Diodorus,  that  the  temple  contained  a  sacred 
library.  In  the  centre  of  the  great  hall  are  the  shattered  remains 
of  a  colossal  statue  of  Rameses  himself,  which,  when  complete, 
must  have  been  no  less  than  60  feet  high.  It  was  a  monolith,  carved 
out  of  the  red  granite  of  Sycne,  and  M'e  might  well  wonder  how  it 
could  have  been  shaped  in  the  quarry,  brought  more  than  a  hun- 
dred miles  down  the  river,  and  drawn  from  the  bank  to  its  place, 
did  we  not  see  the  whole  process  depicted  on  the  monuments,  and 
colossal  statues  lying  still  unfinished  in  the  quarries.  Nor  should 
we  withhold  the  tribute  of  just  admiration  from  the  skill  and  per- 
severance which  enabled  Belzoni,  by  his  own  resoiirces,  to  trans- 
port from  the  Ilameseum  to  England  the  colossal  bust  of  Rameses 
II.,  which  forms  the  choicest  piece  of  Egyptian  sculpture  in  our 
Museum. t  The  expression  of  the  face  differs  from  that  of  any 
others  we  have  seen.  The  expression  of  calm  dignity,  with  tlie  lips 
curved  into  a  quiet  smile,  well  suits  the  greatest  of  the  Egyptian 
kings.     And  yet  it  is  far  from  impossible  that  this  "  mild-visaged 

*  For  this,  and  for  a  popular  but  accurate  account  of  Egyptian  anticjuitics  in 
general,  Mr.  Long's  little  work  remains  unrivalled,  after  all  the  Egyptian  researches 
of  the  last  thirty  years.  It  formed  originally  two  volumes  of  the  Libnirtj  of  Entertain- 
ing KiiowlcJf/c,  under  the  title  of  Egyptian  Antiquities  in  the  British  Jfuseu7n.  Loud. 
1832.     2  vols.  12mo. 

f  The  Ercnch  expedition  under  Napoleon  had  abandoned  the  attempt  after  prepar- 
ing to  mutilate  the  bust  for  easier  transport,  as  is  shown  by  the  hole  bored  in  the 
shoulder  for  a  charge  of  gunpowder. 


B.C.  1320  ?  ]  THE   TWENTIETH   DYNASTY.  123 

despot "  and  mighty  conqueror  may  have  been  the  chief  oppressor 
of  the  Israelites,  and  the  Pharaoh  from  whom  Moses  fled  into  the 
wilderness,  that  is,  if  we  were  to  adopt,  after  all,  the  later  date 
of  the  Exodus.  By  the  side  of  this  bust  may  be  seen  the  cast  of 
another  still  larger,  but  less  effective  as  a  portrait,  from  the  colos- 
sus at  Memphis.  Among  several  other  statues  of  Rameses  in  the 
Museum  is  one  in  wood  from  his  tomb.  His  most  interestiner 
memorial,  however,  in  an  historical  point  of  view,  is  the  "  Tablet 
of  Abydos,"  dedicated  by  him  to  the  memory  of  his  predecessors, 
whose  names  are  inscribed  upon  it  in  order.  This  is  also  in  the 
Britisli  Museum. 

We  learn  from  the  wall  of  the  Kameseum,  that  Rameses  II.  had 
twenty-three  sons  and  three  daughters.  He  was  succeeded  by  his 
thirteenth  son,  Men-ptah  or  Ptah-men  (the  Amenophis  or  Ameno- 
phath  of  Manetho),  in  whose  reign  the  Exodus  is  placed  according 
to  the  Rabbinical  date.  We  shall  return  to  this  point  in  the  next 
chapter.  The  monuments  prove  that  this  was  a  time  of  intestine 
trouble.  Siptah,  one  of  the  successors  of  Men-ptah,  seems  to  have 
been  a  usurper,  and  the  records  of  the  remaining  kings  of  the 
Nineteenth  Dynasty  are  in  a  state  of  confusion  which  corresponds 
to  the  condition  of  the  country  in  their  time. 

The  Twentieth  Dynasty  was  founded  by  Sethee  II.  (the  Se- 
tliosis  or  Rameses  of  Manetho),  son  or  grandson  of  Men-ptah,  about 
B.C.  1220  or  B.C.  1232  (Wilkinson).  Its  third  king,  Rameses  III.,* 
revived  the  glory  of  the  Theban  kingdom,  by  victories  abroad 
and  sumptuous  edifices  at  home,  scarcely  inferior  to  those  of 
Rameses  II.  Besides  a  magnificent  tomb  and  a  royal  residence, 
he  built  the  splendid  temple  of  Medinet-Habou,  in  the  western 
suburb  of  Thebes,  on  the  walls  of  which  are  depicted  his  vic- 
tories over  the  Philistines,  and  over  the  "  Rebu  "  (or  Libyans)  and 
other  nations.  But  far  more  interesting  than  all  the  rest  is  the 
picture  of  a  great  sea-fight  against  the  "  Khairetana  of  the  Sea  " 
and  the  "  Tokkaree,"  whom  Egyptologers  identify  with  the  Cre- 
tans and  the  Carians.  Thus,  about  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth 
century  b.c,  the  monuments  of  Egypt  have  another  point  of  con- 
tact with  the  traditions  of  the  Greeks,  which  make  Crete  a  great 
maritime  power  under  the  rule  of  Minos.  Rameses  III.  was  suc- 
ceeded by  nine  kings  bearing  the  same  name,  the  first  four  of 
whom  were  his  sons.  They  have  left  no  monuments  but  their 
tombs.     The  Theban  kingdom  seems  now  to  have  been  broken 

*  He  appears  to  be  the  Rhampsinitus,  of  whom  Herodotus  tells  the  curious  storj 
about  a  thief. 


124  THE  HISTORY  OF  EGYPT.  [Chap.  VH 

to  pieces  hy  family  dissensions,  of  which  tlie  priests  availed 
themselves  to  re-estahlish  their  power  on  the  ruins  of  the 
moimrc'liy.  Eameses  YIIL,  however,  made  conquests  abroad, 
and  added  to  the  temple  of  Karnak,  where  his  effigy  appears 
with  features  so  marked  as  to  leave  no  doubt  of  its  being  a 
portrait. 

llic  kings  of  the  Tiventy-Jirst  Dynasty  (about  e.g.  1085)  seem 
to  have  taken  advantage  of  the  decline  of  the  Theban  power  to 
revive  the  ancient  kingdom  of  Lower  Egypt,  with  a  new  capital, 
Tanis  (Zoan),  in  the  Delta,  other  cities  of  which  afterwards  be- 
came seats  of  empire.    They  ultimately  extended  their  power  over 
Upper  Eg}7^t,  for  three  of  their  names  are  found  at  Thebes.    These 
are  Amun-sc-pehor,  Pionkh,  and  Pisham,  apparently  the  same  as 
Osochor,  Psinaches,  and  Psucnnes,  whom  Manetho  names  as  the 
fifth,  sixth,  and  seventh  and  last,  kings  of  the  dynasty.    They  bear 
the  double  title  of  "  priests"  and  "  commanders  of  the  soldiers," 
proving  that  the  priestly  caste,  which  was  always  strongest  at  the 
old  seats  of  the  national  worship  in  Lower  Egypt,  had  at  length 
wrested  the  sceptre  from  their  Theban  rivals.     With  all  the  proofs 
we  possess  that,  at  least  from  the  time  of  tlie  Shepherds,  there 
was  a  strong  Semitic  element  in  the  population  of  Lower  Egypt, 
we  are  not  surprised  to  find  indications  of  these  priest-kings 
strengthening  themselves  by  matrimonial  alliances  with  Assyrians, 
to  whom  the  throne  was  consequently  transferred  ;  for  Sheshonkh 
I.,  of  tlie  Twenty-second  Dynasty,  seems  to  have  married  a 
daughter  of  Pisham.     The  same  leaning  to  Semitic  alliances  may 
be  traced  in  the  marriage  of  the  daughter  of  one  of  the  later  kings 
of  this  dynasty  to  Solomon.     A  like  connexion  had  been  formed 
with  the  royal  family  of  Edom,  when  Hadad,  escaping  from  the 
slaughter  of  his  house  by  David,  fled  to  Pharaoh,  King  of  Egypt, 
who  gave  him  the  sister  of  Tahpenes,  the  queen,  in  marriage.* 
How  far  successful  war  aided  in  the  establishment  of  the  Assyrian 
power  in  the  Delta  may  perhaps  be  determined  when  we  know 
more  of  the  cuneiform  inscriptions.     Tiglath-pileser  I.  is  said  to 
have  claimed  tlie  conquest  of  Egypt,  about  1120  B.C.  At  all  events, 
it  is  interesting  to  observe  that  we  have  now  reached  a  point 
— the  epoch  of  about  a  thousand  years  before  the  Christian  era 
— at  which  the  three  great  lines  of  Egyptian,  Jewish,  and  Assyrian 
history,  converge  to  a  common  focus.     But  instead  of  stopping 
here,  to  trace  down  the  two  other  lines  to  the  same  point,  it  is 
better  to  cast  a  rapid  glance  at  the  remaining  five  centuries  of 

*  2  Samuel  viii.  14  ;  1  Kings  xi.  15 — 19  ;  1  Chronicles  xviii.  11 — 13. 


B.C.  971.]  SHISHAK  AND  REHOBOAM.  135 

tlie  history  of  the  Pharaohs,  till  their  overthrow  by  the  Per- 
sians. 

The  Tvjenty-second  Dynasty  is  placed  by  Manetho  at  Bubastis, 
which  seems  to  show  that  their  power  arose  at  first  independently 
of  the  Tanite  kings ;  and  Manetho's  numbers  require  the  Twentieth, 
Twenty-first,  and  Twenty-second  Dynasties  to  overlap  one  another 
to  some  extent.  Their  accession  is  placed  about  1009  or  1008  b.c. 
That  they  were  of  Assyrian  or  Babylonian  race  is  considered  to  be 
proved  by  their  names;  and  their  hostile  policy  towards  the 
Israelites  is  in  accordance  with  that  of  the  Assyrian  kings.  Their 
names  have  been  discovered  by  M.  Mariette  on  tablets  (stelae)  in  the 
temple  of  Apis  at  Bubastis.  The  first  king  was  Sheshonk  I.  He  is 
the  Shishak  who  sheltered  Jeroboam  when  he  fled  from  Solomon, 
and  who  made  war  upon  Rehoboam,  took  Jerusalem,  and  pillaged 
the  temple  and  the  king's  palace  (b.c.  9Y1).  The  extent  of  his  power 
in  Africa  is  shown  by  the  mention  of  the  "  Lubims,  Sukkiims,  and 
Ethiopians  "  among  his  forces.*  _  As  this  is  the  first  case  in  which 
the  Bible  mentions  a  king  of  Egypt  by  his  proper  name  f,  so  it  is 
,  also  the  first  in  which  undoubted  mention  is  made  of  the  Israelites 
on  the  Egyptian  monuments.  The  record  of  the  campaign  is 
inscribed  on  the  wall  of  the  temple  of  Karnak,  where,  in  the  long 
list  of  Sheshonk's  conquests,  Champollion  first  read  the  name  of 
"  Yuda  Melchi,"  that  is,  the  "  Kingdom  of  Judah."  If  Jeroboam 
had  any  share  in  instigating  the  expedition,  he  was  fitly  rewarded 
by  the  treachery  of  his  ally,  who  appears  to  have  taken  several 
cities  from  the  kingdom  of  Israel.  The  invasion  of  Judaea  was  a 
real  conquest ;  Judah  was  placed  under  tribute,  and  the  Jews  re- 
mained the  "servants"  of  Shishak.:}:  Sir  Gardner  Wilkinson 
observes,  that  "  though  the  conquests  of  Sheshonk  are  paraded  in  a 
longer  list  than  those  of  the  older  Pharaohs,  they  were  far  less 
extensive,  and  we  look  in  vain  for  the  remoter  names  of  Carchemish, 
Naharayn,  or  the  Eot-n-o."  The  great  interest  of  the  record  is  as 
the  first  example  of  synchronous  history.  Did  we  but  know  what 
year  of  Sheshonk's  reign  corresponds  to  the  fifth  of  Rehoboam,  the 
synchronism  would  be  complete.  Manetho  assigns  him  twenty-one 
years,  and  his  twenty-first  is  mentioned  on  the  monuments.  N^o 
events  of  importance  mark  the  reigns  of  the  later  kings  of  this 
dynasty,  who  bore  the  Assyrian  names,  several  times  recurring,  of 

*  2  Chronicles  xii.  3—9. 

f  Can  it  be  that  the  Egyptian  names  and  titles  were  too  uncouth  for  the  Hebrew 
ear,  as  Napoleon  could  never  manage  the  name  of  Tchichakoff,  but  called  him  the 
Admiral  ?  J  2  Chronicles  xii.  8. 


126  THE  HISTORY  OF  EGYPT.  [Chap.  VII. 

Osorkon,  Slieslionk*,  and  Tiklat,  Tiglath,  or  Takeloth.  The  last 
is  the  okl  name  of  the  Tigris,  the  Iliddekel  or  DigLa  of  Scripture  f, 
and  the  Diglit  of  Pliny ;  and  one  of  the  kings  who  bore  it  is  called 
on  the  monuments  chief  of  the  Mashoash,  an  Asiatic  people  named 
as  enemies  of  the  Egyptians  under  the  Theban  Pharaohs.  "  Zerah 
the  Cushite,"  who  was  defeated  by  Asa,  king  of  Judah,  about 
941  B.C.,  may  be  one  of  the  later  Osorkons.  He  cannot  well  have 
been  a  king  of  Ethiopia  above  Egypt,  as  we  have  not  yet  come  to 
the  Ethiopian  rule  in  Egypt.  Some  suppose  him  to  have  been  an 
Asiatic  Ethiopian.  May  it  be  that  these  Assyrian  kings  were 
really,  like  the  later  kings  of  Babylon,  of  the  old  Chaldtean  race? 

The  Tiocn ty-th  ird Dynasty,  of  Tanite kings,  appears  tohave been 
a  brancli  of  the  Twenty-second,  for  their  names  are  equally  Assyrian 
or  Chaldiran,  Nlmrod  occurring  more  than  once.  Their  accession  is 
placed  by  Wilkinson  about  b.c.  818,  by  Mr.  Poole  about  B.C.  889. 

The  history  of  Egypt  now  becomes  obscure,  and  her  power 
appears  to  wane  before  the  growth  of  the  Assyrian  empire.  The 
very  mildness  of  her  rule  over  the  Asiatic  provinces  conquered  by 
the  Tlieban  kings  was  unfavourable  to  their  permanent  subjuga-  ^ 
tion.  Unlike  the  Assyrian  kings,  who  transplanted  the  nations 
they  subdued,  the  Pharaohs  seem  hardly  to  have  interfered  with 
their  internal  constitution,  content  with  the  fame  and  spoil  of 
victory,  and  the  payment  of  tribute.  Their  yoke  was  therefore 
more  easily  shaken  off.  The  fruits  of  Sheshonk's  victory  over  the 
weakened  kingdom  of  Judah  were  lost  by  his  successors ;  and  the 
empire  may  be  considered  to  have  departed  from  Egypt,  though 
the  Ethiopians  of  the  Twenty-fifth  Dynasty  and  the  Egyptians 
of  the  Twenty-sixth  made  a  noble  stand  against  the  Assyrians 
and  Babylonians,  only,  however,  to  succumb  before  the  power  of 
Persia. 

To  his  Ttoenty-fourth  Dynasty  Manetho  assigns  only  a  single 
king,  Bocchoris,  sumamed  the  Wise,  a  title  which  he  secured  by 
his  legislation.  His  accession  is  placed  by  Mr.  Poole  in  b.c.  793, 
by  Sir  G.  Wilkinson  in  b.c.  Y34.  He  fixed  his  capital  at  Sais. 
After  a  reign  of  six,  or  forty-four  years,  more  probably  the  latter,  he 
was  dethroned  by  Sabaco,  the  Ethiopian,  who  is  said  to  have 
burnt  him  alive,  but  this  seems  inconsistent  with  what  we  know 
of  the  conqueror's  character. 

The  Tioenty-fiftli  Dynasty  is  composed  of  three  Ethiopian  kings, 

*  The  Britisli  Museum  possesses  a  statue  of  Hapi,   the  Nile-god,  dedicated  by 
Sheshouk  II. 

f  Genesis  ii.  14  ;  Daniel  x.  4. 


B.C.  749—705  ?  ]        THE  ETHIOPIAN  DYNASTY.  127 

from  Kapata  {Moimt  BarhaT)]  Sliebek  I.  (Sabaco),  Sliebek  II. 
(Sebiclius),  and  Telirak  or  Tirliakah  (Taracus),  who  reigned  forty- 
four  years,  about  b.c.  749 — 705  (Poole).*  This  was  the  second  time 
that  Egypt  had  yielded  to  a  foreign  invader,  not  reckoning  the 
doubtful  case  of  the  eighteen  Ethiopian  kings  who,  Herodotus  was 
told,  were  among  the  predecessors  of  Sesosti'is.  We  should  under- 
stand the  nature  of  the  conquest  more  clearly  were  we  better  inform- 
ed of  the  relations  already  existing  between  Egypt  and  Ethiopia. 
We  have  said  that  the  latter  country  was  generally  a  dependency  of 
the  former;  and  the  monuments  of  the  Egyptian  kings  attest 
their  power  over  the  country  south  of  the  first  cataract,  which  was 
ruled  by  a  viceroy,  the  Prince  of  Kesh,  or  Cush.  It  is  not  probable, 
however,  that  the  dominion  of  Egypt  reached  further  south  than 
the  junction  of  the  Blue  River  (Astapus)  with  the  Nile.  Beyond 
that  point  lay  the  "  island "  and  capital  of  Meroe,  the  seat  of 
another  great  Cushite  kingdom,  with  institutions  very  like  those 
of  Egypt.  The  worship  of  Amun  was  here  maintained  in  all  its 
purity ;  and  the  power  of  the  priests  was  so  supreme  that  they 
might  at  their  pleasure  bid  the  king  cease  to  live,  and  he  must 
obey.  The  complete  social  organization  of  the  Ethiopians,  whom 
the  Greeks  believed  to  be  the  justest  of  mankind,  and  their  remote 
position,  placed  them  beyond  the  reach  of  conquest,  except  from 
Egypt ;  nor  is  there  any  evidence  that  their  own  powerful  kingdom 
was  ever  subjugated  to  the  latter.  The  furthest  point  at  which 
we  find  distinct  evidence  of  Egyptian  rule  is  at  Mount  Barlml 
(18°  25'  N.  lat.),  where  the  monmnents  bear  the  name  of  Amenoph 
Ill.f  The  frontier  doubtless  varied  with  the  power  of  the  two 
monarchies,  but  the  region  between  the  first  and  second  cataract, 
called  Dodekaschoenus,  or  ^Ethiopia  ^gypti,  now  Lower  I^Tubia, 
was  always  subject  to  Egypt.  But,  after  the  decline  of  the 
Theban  kings,  and  during  the  weakness  of  their  successors 
in  the  Delta,  we  can  easily  understand  that  the  Ethiopians 
first  absorbed  this  frontier  province,  and  then  entered  Egypt, 
conquering  first  the  Thebaid  and  then  the  rest  of  the  land. 
We  might,  indeed,  imagine  that  the  "  prince  of  Kesh "  took 
advantage  of  the  weakness  of  the  kings  of  Tanis,  to  set  up  a  power 
of  his  own  in  Etliiopia  and  Upper  Egypt,  but  the  ancient  writers 
clearly  regard  the  conquerors  as  really  Ethiopians ;  and  this  is 

*  Their  accession  coincides  very  nearly  with  the  traditional  epoch  of  the  foundation 
of  Rome,  B.C.  753. 

f  His  name  is  inscribed  on  the  two  colossal  lions  of  red  granite  from  Mount  Barkal, 
brought  to  England  by  Lord  Prudhoe  in  1832,  and  now  in  the  British  Museum. 


128  THE   HISTORY  OF  EGYPT.  [Chap.  VH. 

confirmed  by  tlieir  names  and  by  the  statement  tbat  they  came 
from  Napata.  Kindred  however  in  race,  customs,  and  worship, 
they  respected  the  institutions  of  the  Egj^^tians ;  and  the  chief 
effect  of  the  conquest  was  to  revive  the  national  energy  for  a  stand 
against  the  groAving  power  of  Assyria.  There  can  be  little  doubt 
that  Shebek  II.  is  tlie  So  or  Sewa,  whose  alliance  with  Iloshea, 
the  last  king  of  Israel  (about  B.C.  725),  led  to  the  destruction  of 
that  kingdom  and  the  captivity  of  the  Ten  Tribes.  Pursuing  the 
same  policy,  with  better  fortune,  his  successor  Tehrak  (Tirhakah) 
marched  to  the  support  of  Hezekiah,  king  of  Judah,  against 
Sennacherib,  b.c.  710.  The  brief  narrative  of  Scripture  leaves  us 
in  doubt  whether  tlie  armies  of  Egypt  and  Assyria  met  in  a 
battle  which  would  have  been  decisive  of  the  empire  of  Western 
Asia.  It  seems  that  the  encounter  was  prevented  by  the 
miraculous  destruction  of  Sennacherib's  army,  which  took  place 
in  the  camp  on  the  frontiers  of  Egypt,  and  not — as  the  hasty 
reader  is  apt  to  think — before  Jerusalem.  For  Sennacharib  had 
contented  himself  with  sending  a  letter  to  Hezekiah,  from  his 
camp  before  Libnah,  while  he  marched  in  person  against 
Tirhakah.*  We  learn  from  Herodotus,  that  the  annals  of  the 
priests  contained  a  record  of  the  miracle,  transposed  in  time 
and  altered  in  form,  for  the  sake  of  glorifying  their  god  Ptah 
and  his  priest  Sethos.f  This  priest,  said  the  legend, — became 
king  shortly  after  the  retirement  of  the  Ethiopian  dynasty,  and 
alienated  the  warrior  caste  by  neglect  and  injury.  His  sol- 
diers, therefore,  deserted  him  when  "  Sanacharib  king  of  the 
Arabians  :j:  and  Assyi-ians "  marched  his  vast  army  into  Egypt. 
Assured  in  a  dream  of  aid  from  his  god,  Sethos  collected  a  mob  of 
artisans  in  place  of  an  army,  and  marched  to  meet  the  invader  at 
Pelusium.  During  the  night,  a  multitude  of  field-mice  devoured 
all  the  quivers  and  bow-strings  of  the  Assyrians,  and  the  thongs 
by  which  they  held  their  shields.  Xext  morning,  the  disarmed 
host  fell  an  easy  prey  to  the  Egyptians.  In  the  temple  of  Ptali  at 
Memphis,  Herodotus  was  shown  a  statue  of  Sethos  holding  a 
mouse.  Doubtless,  according  to  the  general  order  of  such  legends, 
the  story  of  the  field-mice  arose  out  of  the  emblem  in  the  statue's 
hand,  the  signification  of  which  was  then,  as  now,  unkno^^^l.  § 

*  2  Kings  xL\,  8—35  ;  Isaiah  xxxvii.  8—38. 

f  Herodotus,  ii.  141. 

^  Mr.  Rawliiison  explains  the  prominence  given  to  the  Arabians  by  the  large  Arab 
clement  in  the  population  of  Mesopotamia.     See  Chapter  ix. 

§  Wilkinson  says  it  may  have  been  an  emblem  of  fertility.  It  was  used  also  by 
the  Greeks,  who  worshipped  Apollo  Smintheus  (from  <Tfiii>6o!,  a  mouse). 


B.C.  704.]  RETIRE^IENT  OF  THE  ETHIOPIANS.  129 

Herodotus  may  very  probably  have  mistaken  the  priest  for  a  king ; 
for  this  Sethos  is  not  mentioned  by  Manetho,  nor  is  there  any 
room  left  for  him  in  the  consistent  chronology  which  we  obtain 
both  from  Scriptnre  and  the  Egyptian  monuinents.  There  may 
be  a  confusion  with  Sethos,  the  founder  of  the  Eighteenth 
Dynasty,  The  names  of  many  priests,  which  have  come  down  to 
us  on  monuments  and  mummy  cases,  are  the  same  as  those  of 
kings.  The  silence  of  the  Egj^tian  priests  to  Herodotus  about 
Tirhakah  is  easily  explained  by  their  jealousy  of  the  Ethiopian 
conquerors ;  and  their  story  that  Sabaco,  after  reigning  fifty  years 
(the  whole  duration  of  the  Dynasty),  withdrew  of  his  own  accord 
rather  than  commit  an  act  of  cruel  sacrilege  against  the  Egyptian 
priests,  to  which  he  had  been  prompted  in  a  dream,  is  an  inven- 
tion to  glorify  their  order.  Such  instances  are  important  tests  of 
the  value  of  the  information  supplied  to  Herodotus  by  the  priests. 
Tirhakah's  own  monmnents,  in  Egypt  and  Ethiopia,  especially  at 
Jebel-Bar'Jcal,  the  ancient  Napata,  attest  his  piety  and  his  warlike 
prowess ;  and  upon  them  we  see  Assyrian  captives  in  their  national 
dress.  He  would  naturally  avail  himself  of  the  catastrophe  of 
Sennacherib  to  extend  his  dominion  over  Western  Asia,  and  some 
Greek  writers  even  carry  him  into  Europe  like  Sesostris,  and  with 
equal  improbability.  Tirhakah  reigned  about  twenty  years  (b.c. 
723 — 704).  The  recent  discovery,  that  Psammetichus  married 
the  daughter  of  an  Ethiopian  king,  named  Pionkhi,  who  reigned 
at  ISTapata,  helps  to  account  for  the  retirement  of  the  Ethiopians, 
by  confirming  the  supposition  that  princes  of  the  former  dynasties, 
and  other  petty  chieftains,  exercised  some  power  in  the  Delta 
dm-ing  the  foreign  wars  of  Tirhakah.  Thus  we  may  account  for 
Herodotus's  story  of  the  blind  king  Anysis*  (not  named  by 
Manetho),  who  fled  into  the  marshes  from  before  Sabaco,  but  was 

*  The  confusion  in  the  order  of  the  Egyptian  kings  named  by  Herodotus  is  easily 
accounted  for.  He  had  two  distinct  lists  shown  him,  of  the  kings  of  Upper  and  Lower 
Egypt ;  and  from  these  he  selected  what  seemed  to  him  the  most  interesting  events, 
which  he  describes  under  the  respective  kings,  without  regard  to  the  distinction  bet^veen 
the  two  lines,  or  to  the  exact  order  of  succession  in  each.  The  kings  of  each  line  named 
by  him  (besides  the  queen  Nitocris),  are 


Thinites  and  Thehans. 
1.  Menes.     (Dyn.  I.) 
•2.  Moeris.     (Dyn.  XII.  ?) 

3.  Sesostris.     (Dyn.  XII.— XIX.) 

4.  Pheron. 

5.  Rhampsinitus.     (Dyn.  XX.) 


Memphites,  Ta7iiles,  d'c. 

1.  Cheops.     (Dyn.  IV.) 

2.  Cephren.     (Dto.  Y.) 

3.  Mycerinus.     (Djti.  IV.) 

4.  Asychis.     (Uncertain.) 

5.  Anysis.     (Dyn.  XXIV.  ?) 


In  the  Memphian  list  he  passes  at  once  from  the  pjTamid  builders  to  those  who  were 
comparatively  near  his  own  time. 
VOL.  I. — 9 


180  THE  HISTORY  OF  EGYPT.  [Chap.  Vn. 

restored  after  liis  departure ;  as  well  as  for  his  mention  of  the 
Dodecarchy,  or  rule  of  twelve  kings  in  the  Delta,  before  the 
accession  of  Psammetichus.  Tlie  obscure  names  at  the  beginning 
of  the  Twenty-sixth  Dynasty  in  Manetho  may  belong  to  some  of 
these  petty  princes ;  he  calls  the  first  of  them  an  Ethiopian.  "  It 
may  be  generally  observed,"  says  Sir  Gardner  Wilkinson,  "  that 
whenever  the  Egyptians  represented  a  blank,  or  the  rule  of  ignoble 
kings,  we  are  at  liberty  to  conclude  that  a  foreign  dynasty  was 
established  in  the  country ;  and  if  any  Egyptian  prince  exercised 
authority  during  the  reign  of  Tirhaka,  it  must  have  been  in  a  very 
secluded  part  of  the  marsh  lands  of  the  Delta,  as  the  monuments 
show  his  rule  to  have  extended  over  all  the  principal  places  in 
Eg;yi3t.  Moreover,  the  Apis-stelae  prove  that  Psammetichus  I. 
was  the  sole  and  independent  ruler  of  Egypt  immediately  after 
Tirhaka,  without  any  intermediate  king ;  and  an  Apis,  bom  in  the 
twenty-sixth  year  of  Tirhaka,  died  in  the  twenty-first  year  of 
Psammetichus ;  the  reign  of  Tirhaka  having  continued  only  ten 
months  and  four  days  after  the  birth  of  that  biill."  *  He  adds, 
however,  the  most  important  note: — "This  does  not  positively 
prove  that  no  kings  intervened  between  Tirhaka  and  Psammetichus 
I.,  as  the  latter  may  have  included  their  short  reigns  in  their  own : 
and  Sir  Henry  Kawlinson  has  discovered  the  names  of  the  twenty 
native  rulers  who  were  appointed  by  the  Assyrian  king,  Esar- 
haddon,  to  govern  Egypt  at  this  time."  f  All  this  agrees  with 
the  rapidity  with  which  the  Assyrian  monarchy  under  Esarhad- 
don  retrieved  the  disaster  of  Sennacherib." :}: 

The  Twenty-sixth  Dynasty^  of  Saite  kings,  begins  "virtually  with 
PsA]MATiK  or  Psammetichus  I.,  whose  accession  is  fixed  by  the 
stelae  in  the  Museum  at  Florence,  to  b.c.  664,  a  date  at  which 
Eo-vptian  chronology  becomes  at  length  certain  and  straight- 
forward. This,  too,  is  the  epoch  of  Egyptian  histoiy  from  which 
Herodotus  assures  us  that  he  begins  to  speak,  no  longer  from  the 
authority  of  the  Egyptians  only,  but  of  others  who  agreed  with 
them,  and  in  part  from  what  he  had  himself  seen.  §  Nevertheless 
his  story  of  the  accession  of  Psammetichus  has  quite  a  legendary 
character.  This  prince  was  the  son  of  Neko  (the  Nechao  I. 
of  Manetho's  Twenty-sixth  D}Tiasty),  who  was  put  to  death  by 

*  Essay  on  Egyptian  History,  in  Rawlinson's  Iferoefoitw,  Appendix  to  Book  II.  chap- 
ter viii.  §  3'2 ;  vol.  ii.  p.  319,  '2nd  edition, 
f  See  Atlvcnceum,  August  18,  1860,  p.  228. 
X  See  below,  chapter  ix. 
§  Herodotus,  ii.  147. 


B.C.  664.]  ACCESSION  OF  PSAMMETICHUS  I.  131 

Sabaco  the  Ethiopian,  Psammetichus  himself  escaping  to  Syria. 
Returning  to  Sa'is,  after  the  withdrawal  of  the  Ethiopians,  he 
became  one  of  the  Twelve  Kings,*  who  divided  Eg}^t  among 
them,  and  strengthened  their  confederacy  by  intermaniages  and 
by  meeting  to  sacrifice  in  the  temple  of  Ptah  at  Memphis.  An 
oracle  had  declared,  that  whichsoever  of  them  should  pour  his 
libation  to  the  god  from  a  bronze  cup  would  be  the  sole  ruler  of  all 
Egypt.  Now,  on  the  last  day  of  a  great  festival,  when  the  high 
priest  had  brought  out  the  golden  goblets  for  the  princes,  there 
were  found  to  be  only  eleven.  Psammetichus,  who  happened  to 
stand  last,  poured  out  his  libation  from  his  helmet,  and  so  fulfilled 
the  oracle.f  By  the  jealousy  of  his  colleagues,  he  was  driven  from 
his  government  into  the  marshes,  and  forbidden  to  hold  inter- 
course with  his  countrymen.  Enquiring  again  of  the  oracle  of  the 
goddess  Buto  (Latona),  he  was  told,  that  "Vengeance  should 
come  from  the  sea,  when  hrascn  men  should  appear."  The  strange 
prediction  was  soon  fulfilled  by  the  landing  of  certain  Carians 
and  lonians,  pirates,  driven  to  the  shores  of  Egypt  by  stress 
of  weather.  News  was  brought  to  Psammetichus  that  hrazen  men, 
had  come  from,  the  sea^  and  were  plundering  the  land.  He  at  once 
engaged  them  in  his  service,  and  conquered  his  eleven  competitors 
by  their  aid.  The  important  fact  embodied  in  this  legend  is  the 
engagement  of  Greek  mercenaries  by  Psammetichus  to  secure  his 
title  to  the  crown.  Foreign  auxiliaries  had  long  been  employed 
in  the  armies  of  Egypt,  and  Cretans  (probably)  appear  among  the 
forces  of  the  Theban  kings.  We  cannot  believe  that  those  engaged 
by  Psammetichus  were  a  wandering  band,  thrown  by  accident  on 
the  coast.  The  states  of  Greece,  especially  on  the  shores  and 
islands  of  Asia  Minor,  were  now  at  that  period  of  transition  when 
the  tyrants  were  setting  up  their  power  on  the  weakness  of  con- 
tending factions.  Numerous  exiles  were  driven  forth  to  seek 
subsistence  on  the  sea,  and  were  ready  to  accept  foreign  service. 
In  such  auxiliaries  Psammetichus  probably  saw  the  means  at  once 
of  securing  the  throne  and  of  forming  an  army  to  protect  the 
country  against  her  rival  of  Assyria.  Besides  the  lonians  and 
Carians  mentioned  by  Herodotus,  he  engaged  Phcenician  sailors. 
His  policy  was  at  first  successful,  and  his  foreign  mercenaries 

*  Probably  governors  of  the  twelve  nomes  of  the  Delta.  The  historian's  incidental 
memorial  of  the  Labyrinth,  near  lake  Moeris,  as  their  common  monument,  is  a  mistake. 
The  ruins,  which  scarcely  justify  his  excessive  admiration,  bear  the  names  of  Amenemha 
III.,  of  the  Twelfth  Dynasty,  and  of  Rameses  II. 

f  If  the  story  represents  an  actual  occurrence,  it  was  probably  a  trick  concerted 
between  Psammetichus  and  the  priests,  though  Herodotus  affirms  the  contrary. 


183  THE  HISTOKY   OF  EGYPT.  [Chap.  Vn. 

enabled  him  to  recover  the  glory  of  Egypt  in  war  and  to  enter  on 
the  last  brilliant  period  of  her  history. 

Ilis  chief  enterprise  was  the  recovery  of  the  Philistine  city 
of  Ashdod  (Azotus),  the  key  to  the  whole  frontier,  which  had 
been  taken  by  the  Assyrians  under  Sargon,  the  father  of  Sen- 
nacherib, with  its  garrison  of  Egyptians  and  Ethiopians  (Isaiah 
xx).  If  we  are  to  believe  Herodotus,  the  siege  of  Ashdod  lasted 
for  twenty-nine  years,  so  much  had  the  power  of  Egypt  declined, 
while  the  Assyrians  had  acquired  that  skill  in  the  attack  and 
defence  of  fortresses,  to  which  their  monuments  bear  witness. 
At  home  the  king  cultivated  the  arts  of  peace,  and  the  monu- 
ments of  his  reign  show  a  revival  of  the  skill  and  beauty  displayed 
under  tlie  Nineteenth  Dynasty.  For  the  first  time  in  Egyptian 
history  foreigners  were  encouraged  to  trade  with  the  country,  and 
Psammetichus  even  caused  his  subjects  to  learn  Greek.  But  his 
dependence  on  foreign  mercenaries  brought  on  the  usual  punish- 
ment of  such  a  policy.  lie  gave  his  Greek  soldiers  settlements 
apart  from  the  Egyptians,  which  obtained  the  name  of  the  Ionian 
and  Carian  "  Camps,"  on  the  two  banks  of  the  Nile.  Mention  is 
also  made  of  the  "  Camp  of  the  Tyrians,"  but  this  may  have  been 
an  older  settlement.  Thus  the  foreigners  obtained,  to  a  great 
extent,  the  command  of  the  Nile.  The  favour  shown  to  them 
alienated  the  native  Egyptian  soldiers,  already  disgusted  by4;heir 
detention  in  the  frontier  garrisons.  They  deserted  in  a  body, 
marched  up  the  valley  to  Elephantine,  and,  being  joined  by  the 
garrison  of  that  fi'ontier  city,  crossed  over  into  Ethiopia,  to  the 
number,  probably  exaggerated  in  Herodotus,  of  240,000.  Psam- 
metichus went  as  far  as  Elephantine,  in  the  vain  hope  of  inducing 
them  to  return ;  and  the  memorial  of  his  journey  is  still  to  be  seen 
at  Abou-Simbel.  They  were  settled  by  the  Ethiopian  king  to  the 
south  of  MeroL',  where  they  long  formed  a  distinct  community 
under  the  name  of  the  "  Deserters."  Their  departure  left  the 
independence  of  Egypt  at  the  mercy  of  the  foreign  troops. 
Towards  the  close  of  this  reign  occurred  the  great  invasion  of 
Western  Asia  by  the  Scythians,  of  which  we  shall  have  to  speak 
hereafter.  They  had  advanced  into  Palestine  on  their  way  to 
Egypt,  when  Psammetichus  prevailed  on  them  to  turn  back. 

After  a  reign  of  fifty-four  years,*  Psammetichus  was  succeeded 
by  his  son  Neko,  the  Nekao  II.  of  Manetho  and  the  Pharaoh- 
Necho  of  Scripture  (b.c.  Gil),  The  recovery  of  Ashdod  had  opened 
the  way  to  Asiatic  conquests,  to  which  the  declining  power  of 

*  Thi3  number  is  given  by  Herodotus,  and  confirmed  by  the  Apis-stelse. 


B.C.  610.]       NEKO,   JOSIAH,   AND  NEBUCHADNEZZAR.  133 

Assyria  invited  him.  Neko's  first  object  was  the  strengtlieiiing  of 
his  frontier  by  securing  the  city  of  Carcheraish  on  the  Euphrates, 
After  an  involuntary  conflict  with  the  Jews  under  Josiah,  who 
was  killed  in  battle  at  Megiddo,*  he  succeeded  in  his  object,  and 
left  a  powerful  army  at  Carchemish.  On  his  return  he  strength- 
ened his  party  in  Judfea  by  deposing  Jehoahaz,  the  son  of  Josiah, 
and  setting  up  his  brother  Jehoiakim,  on  whom  he  imposed  a 
large  tribute.  But  this  was  Egypt's  last  successful  expedition. 
The  new  Babylonian  kingdom  rose  on  the  ruins  of  the  Assyrian, 
and  Nebuchadnezzar  at  once  turned  his  attention  to  the  western 
provinces.  The  Egyptian  army  at  Carchemish  was  overpowered,t 
Jerusalem  was  taken,  the  king  whom  Neko  had  set  up  became 
tributary  to  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  revolting  three  years  afterwards, 
was  taken  prisoner  during  the  siege,  and  put  to  death  (b.c.  599). 
The  entire  prostration  of  Egypt  is  shown  by  Neko's  inability  to 
help  Jehoiakim,  and  we  are  expressly  told  that  "  the  king  of 
Egypt  came  not  again  any  more  out  of  his  land  ;  for  the  king  of 
Babylon  had  taken,  from  the  river  of  Egypt  unto  the  river  Eu- 
phrates, all  that  pertained  to  the  king  of  Egypt,":}: 

Neko  had,  however,  made  good  use  of  the  period  of  his  pros- 
perity. He  carried  on  his  father's  schemes  of  foreign  commerce, 
and  maintained  fleets  both  in  the  Mediterranean  and  the  Bed 
Sea.  Herodotus  was  informed  that  a  fleet  sent  out  by  Neko  from 
the  Bed  Sea  came  home  by  the  Mediterranean,  having  accom- 
plished the  circumnavigation  of  Africa.  The  voyage  occupied 
three  years,  the  sailors  wintering  on  shore,  and  staying  to  sow  and 
reap  the  harvest.  Men  of  science  and  critics  are  never  likely  to 
agree  as  to  the  truth  of  this  story  in  the  absence  of  further  con- 
firmatory evidence.  The  historian's  own  reason  for  rejecting  it, 
— that  the  sailors  said  they  had  had  the  sun  on  their  right  hand, 
at  noon,  which  it  would  be  to  persons  sailing  westward  south  of 
the  tropics, — is  a  strong  confirmatory  argument.  Major  Bennell 
has  shown  how  the  set  of  the  cuiTents  round  the  African  coast 
would  favour  the  voyage,  while  they  opposed  it  when  attempted 
by  the  Carthaginians  in  the  opposite  direction.  These  arguments 
must  not  be  oveiTated  ;  but,  when  they  are  resisted  on  the  vague 
ground  of  general  improbability,  the  question  arises,  whether  the 
story  is  likely  to  have  been  invented  if  the  enterprise  had  never 

*  For  further  particulars  of  this  battle,  and  of  the  relations  of  Jewish  politics  to 
Egypt,  see  chapter  viii, 

\  This  was  in  the  fourth  year  of  Jehoiakim,  B.C.  607  or  606 ;  Jeremiah  xlvi.  2. 
X  2  Kings  xxiv.  7. 


184  THE  HISTORY  OF  EGYPT.  [Chap.  VH. 

been  achieved.  Keko  renewed  the  attempt  of  Rameses  II.  to 
effect  a  direct  communication  hutween  the  two  seas  bj  means  of  a 
canal.  The  work  was  left  uniinished,  and  its  track  has  remained 
for  nearly  twenty -five  centuries  to  tempt  the  repetition  of  the  effort, 
till  at  last  the  experiment  is  fairly  nnder  trial,  whether  modern  en- 
gineering skill  and  commercial  co-ojjeration  can  achieve  and  main- 
tain a  work  which  was  too  great  for  the  resources  of  the  Pharaohs. 

Xeko  reigned  sixteen  years,  and  was  succeeded  (b.c.  595)  by 
Psammetichus  II.,  the  Psammis  of  Ilerodotus,  who  reigned  six. 
Keeping  within  his  own  frontier,  he  was  left  unmolested  by  Nebu- 
chadnezzar, and  Egypt  seems  to  have  prospered  nnder  him.  He 
enlarged  the  temples  both  at  Thebes  and  in  Lower  Eg}'pt,  and 
erected  a  small  temple  on  the  frontier,  opposite  to  Philae,  prob- 
ably on  the  occasion  of  his  expedition  into  Ethiopia.  The  con- 
tinued intercourse  of  Egypt  with  Greece  is  attested  by  Herod otus's 
curious  story  of  an  embassy  from  the  Eleans,  to  consult  the  Egyp- 
tians on  the  wisdom  of  their  rules  for  the  Olympic  Games.* 

This  king  died,  immediately  after  his  return  fron:i  Ethiopia, 
before  he  had  time  to  prosecute  the  war  with  Babylon,  which  was 
renewed  by  his  successor  Uaphra,  the  Yaphres  or  Apries  of 
Manetho  and  Herodotus,  and  the  Pharaoh-Hophra  of  Scripture 
(b.c.  589).  After  a  brilliant  opening,  his  reign  of  twenty-five 
years  proved  one  series  of  disasters.  He  made  a  successful  cam- 
paign into  Palestine  and  Phoenicia,  took  Sidon,  and  gained  naval 
victories  over  the  Tyrians  and  the  Cyprians.  These  successes  elated 
both  the  Egyptian  king  and  his  partisans  at  Jerusalem  ;  and  in 
spite  of  the  prophecies  of  Jeremiah  against  both,  Zedekiah  re- 
belled against  Nebuchadnezzar.  The  advance  of  Pharaoh-Hophra 
forced  the  Chaldaeans  to  raise  the  siege  of  Jerusalem.  But  the 
clouds  were  only  lifted  for  a  moment.  The  city  fell,  and  the 
temple  was  razed  to  the  ground.  The  asylum  which  Egypt  offered 
to  the  fugitives  was  violated  by  the  advance  of  Nebuchadnezzar, 
and  there  seems  every  reason  to  believe  that  he  overran  Egypt 
and  even  took  Thebes  itself.  His  victory  might  not  have  been  so 
easy,  but  for  new  disasters  which  befell  the  king  of  Egypt  fi-om 
the  opposite  side.  Greek  colonies,  of  which  we  shall  have  again 
to  speak,  had  been  planted  on  the  beautiful  terraces  of  the  penin- 
sula that  sweeps  forwards  into  the  Mediterranean,  between  the 
Great  Syrtis  and  the  Libyan  Desert  west  of  Egypt.  The  entire 
defeat  of  an  army  sent  against  C\Tene,  the  chief  of  these  colonies, 
and  consisting  apparently  of  native  Egyptian  troops,  caused  the 

*  Herodotus,  ii.  160. 


B.C.  570.]  REIGN  OP  A^IASIS.  135 

cry  of  treachery  to  be  I'aised  against  the  king  himself.  Then  -vras 
seen  the  fruit  of  the  policy  of  the  first  Psammetichns.  The  Egyp- 
tian army  mutinied.  Amasis,  sent  to  appease  the  revolt,  was 
crowned  king  by  the  rebels.  Another  courtier,  returning  unsuc- 
cessful, was  so  cruelly  outraged  by  Apries,  that  all  the  old  Egyptian 
party  abandoned  him.  His  mercenaries  failed  him  in  the  hour 
of  need  ;  he  was  defeated  at  Momemphis,  brought  back  as  a  pris- 
oner to  Sais,  and  put  to  death  at  the  demand  of  the  people.* 
Such  is  the  story  of  Herodotus ;  but  it  is  suspected  by  modern 
critics  to  have  been  an  invention  of  the  priests,  to  conceal  the  fact 
that  Egypt  was  conquered  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  Amasis  set 
upon  the  throne  as  his  vassal. 

The  weakness  of  Xebuchadnezzar's  successors  permitted  Egypt 
to  enjoy  nearly  half  a  century  of  prosperity  under  her  new  king, 
Amasis,  or  Aah-mes  II.  (b.c.  5T0 — 525).f  He  husbanded  the  in- 
ternal resources  of  Egypt,  encouraged  commerce,  and  was  so  suc- 
cessful at  sea  as  to  add  Cyprus  to  his  dominions.  Nabonidus  was 
glad  to  accept  his  alliance  against  the  growing  power  of  Cyrus. 
If  we  may  believe  a  story  in  the  Cyropsedia  of  Xenophon,  which 
— romance  as  it  is — may  contain  fragments  of  history  among 
its  incidents,  Amasis  performed  his  part  in  the  league  against 
Cyrus,  by  sending  to  the  aid  of  Croesus  120,000  Egyptians,  who, 
after  the  bravest  resistance,  were  received  to  an  honourable  capitu- 
lation, and  settled  in  Larissa  and  Cyllene.  The  loss  of  this  army 
would  go  far  to  accoimt  for  the  ease  with  which  Egypt  was  over- 
run by  Cambyses. 

The  monuments  contain  but  slight  records  of  Amasis.  His 
chief  works  were  doubtless  in  Lower  Egypt,  wliere  the  edifices 
even  of  later  kings  have  perished  more  rapidly  than  the  oldest 
temples  of  the  Tliebaid.  Herodotus  assigns  to  him  the  splendid 
propylsea  of  the  temple  of  Neith  at  Sais,  as  well  as  the  colossal 
statues  and  immense  andro-sphinxes  of  its  avenue.  He  mentions, 
too,  a  shrine  out  of  a  single  block  of  granite,  of  enormous  size, 
from  the  quarries  of  Elephantine.:}:  It  took  two  thousand  boat- 
men three  years  to  transport  the  block  to  Sais,  and,  after  all  this 
labour,  an  evil  omen  prevented  its  being  set  up.     It  is  more  likely 

*  His  death  literally  fulfilled  the  prophecy  of  Jeremiah,  xliv.  30. 

f  The  name  is  identical  with  that  of  the  founder  of  the  Eighteenth  Dynasty,  the 
Amosis  of  Manetho.     Hence  the  king  named  in  the  text  is  often  called  Amasis  II. 

X  Taking  the  cubit  at  20  inches,  it  was  35  feet  long,  23  feet  4  inches  broad,  and 
13  feet  4  inches  high,  on  the  outside  ;  and  the  excavated  interior  was  31  feet  3  inches 
by  20  feet  by  8  feet  4  inches.  A  similar  monolith  of  the  same  king  has  been  found 
erect  at  Tel-et-mai,  the  ancient  Thmuis  or  Leontopolis,  the  dimensions  of  which  are 


188  THE  HISTORY  OF  EGYPT.  [Chap.  VH. 

that  the  internal  troublen,  which  the  priests  desired  to  conceal 
from  Herodotus,  prevented  the  erection  of  this  monolith,  as  well 
as  of  the  recumbent  colossi  which  he  saw  at  Memphis  and  Sais. 
The  great  temple  of  Isis  at  Memphis  was  also  the  work  of  Amasis. 
His  reign,  or  rather  the  whole  time  of  the  Twenty-sixth  Dynasty, 
has  l)cen  called  the  renaissance  of  Egyptian  art. 

"We  have  now,  however,  reached  a  point  at  which  the  story 
of  Egyi)t  has  no  longer  to  be  painfully  deciphered  from  the  monu- 
ments, ])ut  is  recorded  from  sources  comparatively  trustworthy,  in 
the  lively  pages  of  the  Greek  historian,  who  even  gives  lis  details 
of  the  private  life  of  Amasis.  He  divided  his  time  between 
serious  business  in  the  morning,  which  he  never  neglected,  and 
revelry  and  witty  conversation  with  his  guests  in  the  evening ; 
and  when  his  friends  told  him  he  was  risking  the  dignity  of  the 
crown,  he  answered  with  the  old  proverb  of  the  bow  always  bent. 
Much  as  he  honoured  his  country's  gods  in  public,  his  personal 
relations  to  them  resembled  the  alternate  fear  and  contempt  Avith 
which  Louis  XI.  treated  his  saints.  For  having,  in  his  disorderly 
youth,  often  been  brought  before  the  oracles  that  his  thefts  might 
be  detected,  he  now  honoured  or  despised  the  gods  according  to 
the  knowledge  they  had  shown  in  condemning  or  acquitting  him. 
A  like  indication  of  scepticism  is  seen  in  his  contemporary, 
Croesus  of  Lydia,  who  tried  the  knowledge  of  the  Greek  oracles 
about  trifles  before  he  would  risk  his  own  fortune  on  their 
advice. 

Tlie  internal  prosperity  of  his  reign  is  attested  by  the  evidences 
of  wealth  and  luxury  in  the  monuments  of  private  persons.  The 
exaggeration  of  Herodotus  in  calling  it  the  most  prosperous  reign 
that  Egypt  had  ever  known,  may  be  accounted  for  by  his  fuller 
knowledge  of  this  period.  Kever  had  the  river  been  more  bounti- 
ful, or  the  land  more  'productive.  The  inhabited  cities  were  not 
less  than  twenty  thousand.  The  law  against  idleness,  however, 
requiring  every  man  to  present  himself  once  a  year  before  the 
governor  of  his  norae  and  show  his  means  of  livelihood,  failing 
which  he  was  to  suffer  death  as  a  useless  member,  may  have  been 

21  feet  9  inches  by  13  feet  by  11  feet  externally,  and  19  feet  S  inches  by  8  feet  by  8  feet 
3  inches  internally.  IleroiJotus  mentions  one  still  larger  at  the  temple  of  Buto,  each 
wall  of  which  was  40  cubits  ((>6  feet  8  inches)  square,  besides  its  cornice,  which  pro- 
jected 4  cubits  (6  feet  8  inches),  and  was  another  single  block.  Supposing  the  thick- 
ness of  the  sides  to  be  6  feet,  the  weight  of  this  block  would  be  above  6738  tons,  and 
its  solid  content  76,032  cubic  feet.  Models  of  such  monolith  shrines  may  be  seen  in 
the  British  Museum,  supported  by  a  kneeling  figure,  and  containing  the  statue  of  the 
god. 


B.C.  530.]  AM  ARTS  AWD  POLYCRATES.  137 

much  older,  for  we  see  sucli  registration  scenes  on  the  monuments 
of  the  Eighteenth  Dynasty.  The  similar  law  of  Solon  is  said  by 
Herodotus  to  have  been  borrowed  from  the  Egyptians. 

The  growing  intercourse  between  Egypt  and  Greece  was  one 
of  the  most  important  features  of  this  reign.  Though  raised  to  the 
throne  by  the  old  Egyptian  party,  Amasis  saw  that  it  was  too  late 
to  return  to  the  rigid  system  of  exclusion.  He  granted  the  Greeks 
the  city  of  Naucratis,  on  the  Canobic  mouth  of  the  Nile,  as  a' 
residence,  and  this,  like  Canton  to  the  Europeans  in  China,  was 
long  the  only  place  where  they  were  allowed  to  trade.  He  gave 
them  land  for  temples,  and,  besides  the  "  Hellenium,"  built  con- 
jointly by  the  Ionian,  Dorian,  and  -^olian  cities  of  Asia  Minor, 
other  states  erected  separate  temples.  Amasis  even  contributed 
largely  to  the  rebuilding  of  the  temple  at  Delphi,  and  enriched 
many  of  the  Greek  shrines  with  costly  offerings.  He  made  an 
alliance  with  Cyrene,  and  married  Ladice,  the  daughter  either  of 
the  king  or  of  one  of  the  chief  nobles.  His  closest  league,  how- 
ever, was  with  Samos  ;  and,  after  all  his  splendours,  his  most  en- 
during memorial  is  the  beautiful  story,  told  with  all  the  sim- 
plicity of  Herodotus,  and  adorned  by  the  genius  of  Schiller. 

Polycrates,  having  made  himself  the  tyrant  of  Samos,  had 
achieved  the  most  brilliant  successes  both  by  sea  and  land.  His 
unbounded  good  fortune  roused  the  fear  of  his  friend  Amasis,  who 
wrote  to  remind  him  of  the  jealousy  of  the  gods,  and  advised  him 
to  east  away  the  most  valued  of  his  treasures  : — 

"  So,  would'st  thou  scape  the  coming  ill — 
Implore  the  dread  Invisible 

Thy  sweets  themselves  to  sour  ! 
Well  ends  his  life,  believe  me,  never, 
On  whom,  with  hands  thus  full  for  ever, 
The  Gods  their  bounty  shower. 

"  And  if  thy  prayer  the  Gods  can  gain  not, 
This  counsel  of  thy  friend  disdain  not — 

Invoke  Adversity ! 
And  what  of  all  thy  worldly  gear 
Thy  deepest  heart  esteems  most  dear 

Cast  into  yonder  sea  ! " 

For  this  offering  Polycrates  chose  a  gold  and  emerald  signet- 
ring,  the  work  of  the  greatest  artist  of  Samos,  and,  having  cast  it 
into  the  sea,  far  from  land,  returned  to  indulge  his  sorrow.  But 
within  a  week  a  fisherman  brought  to  the  palace  a  fish  so  large  and 
beautiful,  that  he  had  kept  it  as  a  present  for  the  king.  When  it 
was  cut  open,  the  signet-ring  was  found  in  its  belly,  and  brought 


188  THE  HISTORY  OF  EGYPT.  [Chap.  VIL 

to  Polycrates  by  liis  servants  with  great  joy.  Accepting  this 
token  of  tlie  pleasure  of  the  gods,  Polycrates  wrote  to  Amasis ; 
but  the  Egyptian  only  saw  in  the  return  of  the  ring  the  refusal 
of  the  sacrilice  to  fortune.  Perceiving  that  "  it  does  not  belong 
to  man  to  save  his  fellow-man  from  the  fate  which  is  in  store  for 
him,"  he  sent  a  herald  to  renounce  the  friendship  of  Polycrates, 
that,  when  the  certain  misfortune  came,  he  might  escape  the  pain 
of  grieving  for  a  friend. 

"  In  horror  turns  the  khigly  guest — 
'  Then  longer  here  I  may  not  rest, 
I'll  have  no  friend  in  thee  ! 
The  Gods  have  marked  thee  for  their  prey, 
To  share  thy  doom  I  dare  not  stay  ! ' 
He  spoke  and  put  to  sea."  * 

Polycrates  was  at  last  put  to  a  cruel  death  by  the  treachery 
of  the  Persian  satrap  Orojtes. 

The  legend  is  more  than  an  ornament  to  relieve  the  gravity  of 
history.  By  its  mention  of  the  correspondence  between  the 
princes,  the  naval  successes  of  the  Samian  ruler,  and  the  progress 
of  the  fine  arts  among  the  Asiatic  Greeks,  it  forms  a  link  in  the 
chain  of  evidence  that  a  new  spirit  had  arisen  to  bring  Egypt  with- 
in the  sphere  of  that  energetic  intercourse  which  now  bound  to- 
gether all  the  shores  of  the  Levant,  and  that  she  was  contributing 
from  the  stores  of  her  ancient  civilization  to  that  new  outburst  of 
intellectual  and  artistic  activity  which  followed  the  Persian  "Wars. 

Meanwhile  her  own  course  of  empire  and  independence  had 
been  run,  and  the  predicted  time  had  come  when  "  there  should 
be  no  more  a  king  over  the  land  of  Egypt."  The  Persian  Cam- 
byses  had  succeeded  to  the  empire  which  his  father  Cyinis  had 
extended  from  the  table-land  of  Iran  to  the  shores  of  the  JEgean, 
his  frontier  towards  Egypt  being  secured  by  the  restoration  of  the 
Jews.  Tlie  new  king  at  once  collected  all  the  resources  of  his 
empire  for  the  invasion  of  Egypt.  Though  Amasis  had  been  on 
friendly  terms  with  Cyi'us,  to  whose  aid  he  had  once  sent  the 
best  of  the  Egyptian  eye-doctors,  a  ground  of  quarrel  was  soon 
found.  Cambyses  seems  to  have  asked  the  daughter  of  Amasis, 
nominally  in  marriage,  but  really  as  a  concubine,  with  the  certainty 
of  a  refusal ;  and  other  pretexts  were  given  by  Egyptian  traitors. 
Amasis  died  just  at  the  commencement  of  the  invasion  (b.c. 
525) ;  his  son  Psammcnitus  was  defeated  at  Pelusium,  the  eastern 

*  Schiller's  ballad,  The  Ring  of  Polycrates,  translated  by  Sir  Bulwer  Lytton.  To 
suit  the  requirements  of  his  art,  the  poet  has  turned  the  correspondence  into  a  personal 
visit. 


B.a  525.]  FIRST  PERSIAN  CONQUEST:   REVOLT   OF  INARUS.  139 

key  of  Egypt,  and  put  to  death  with,  every  insult,  after  a 
reign  of  only  six  months.  With  him  ended  the  Twenty-sixth 
Dynasty. 

Besides  the  above  kings,  the  monuments  at  Thebes  give  us  the 
name  of  a  Psammetichus  III.,  who  cannot  be  the  Psammenitus 
of  Herodotus,  for  his  daughter  was  the  queen  of  Amasis.* 

The  Twenty-seventh  Dynasty  of  Manetho  is  composed  of  the 
Persian  kings,  from  Cambyses  to  Darius  II.  Nothus  (b.c.  625 — 
414).  The  history  of  Egypt  under  their  rule  belongs  to  that  of 
the  Persian  emj)ire.  It  need  only  be  said  here  that,  after  the  first 
outrages  perpetrated  by  Cambyses,  in  that  madness  which  is  often 
engendered  by  despotic  power,  the  Persian  kings  pursued  in  Egypt 
their  usual  conciliatory  policy.  The  personal  visit  of  Darius 
Hystaspis,  the  great  organizer  of  the  empire,  is  commemorated  in 
hieroglyphics  on  several  monuments,  and  his  name  is  found  on 
Apis-stelge,  in  the  sepulchres  of  the  sacred  bulls ;  it  appears  too 
with  the  honorary  titles  of  the  old  Egyptian  kings.  Nevertheless, 
a  revolt  broke  out  in  "the  last  year  of  his  reign,  but  was  suppressed 
in  the  second  year  of  Xerxes,  b.c.  484.  It  was  in  the  reign  of  this 
king,  and  under  the  satrapy  of  his  brother  Achaemenes,  about 
B.C.  460,  that  Egypt  was  visited  by  Herodotus  of  Halicarnassus, 
who  collected  from  the  priests  and  from  other  sources  that  infor- 
mation which,  embodied  in  the  second  book  of  his  "  Histories," 
has  long  combined  with  the  allusions  in  the  Pentateuch  to  keep 
alive  that  interest  in  Egypt,  which  we  now  possess  more  abundant 
means  of  gratifying.  Had  Herodotus  been  able  himself  to  read 
the  inscriptions  on  the  monuments  which  he  beheld  in  all  their 
glory,  his  records  would  have  possessed  a  tenfold  value. 

About  the  fifth  year  of  Artaxerxes  I.  (b.c.  458)  a  more  formid- 
able revolt  broke  out  under  Inarus,  the  son  of  Psammetichus,f  who 
was  assisted  by  the  Athenians.  The  defeat  of  an  immense  Pei*sian 
army  and  fleet  and  the  death  of  AcluBmenes  were  avenged  by  a  still 
greater  armament,  and  Inarus  fled  with  a  body  of  Greeks  to  Byblus, 
in  the  marshes  of  the  Delta.  He  was  enticed  from  this  stronghold 
by  a  promise  of  pardon,  and  crucified.  The  embers  of  the  revolt 
were  still,  however,  kept  alive  by  Amyrtteus,  who  had  escaped  to 
the  isle  of  Elbo.  An  Athenian  fleet  sent  to  his  aid  returned  without 
attempting  a  landing  (b.c.  449-448),  and  the  Persian  king  en- 
deavoured to  conciliate  the  Egyptians  by  appointing  as  satraps 
Pausiris,  the  son  of  Amyrtaeus,  and  Thannyris,  the  son  of  Inarus. 

*  This  we  learn  from  her  fine  sarcophagus,  now  in  the  British  Museum. 
\  His  name  is  neither  found  in  Manetho  nor  on  the  monuments. 


140  THE  III8T011Y  OP  EGYPT.  [Chap.  VH 

The  rcvoll  bntlxc  out  nuvw  under  DuiiuK  Notlius,  in  llie  tenth 
year  of  wliOHc  reign  (u.c.  1 14)  Aniyrtaeus  became  the  in(Ie])endent 
kiu'^  (trKirvpt.  Ilis  rei"!!!  at  Su'is  histeil  nix  yeurs,  and  lu;  forniB, 
]»y  hiniscdf,  th(^  Tirtnfy-citj/ith  {Saifc)  Dynasty  of  Maiietho. 

Thv  history  of  the  Twenty-ninth  {Menilesian)  and  the  ThirtietK 
{Schnniijtt)  Di/iKtstlcs  is  beset  ^\'ith  dillicnlties,  wliieli  wo  must 
h'n\e  lo  the  l']<;y|)toioj];-ers.  Th(>y  ruh'd  with  great  i)rosperity,  and 
h'ft  nionuiuents  whieh  may  vie  in  beauty  and  iinish  Avitli  those 
of  tiie  earber  dynasties.  Their  alHances  with  the  Greeks,  the 
internal  disorders  of  Persia,  and  the  dissensions  among  tlu^  salraj)H, 
h'ft  then\  for  the  most  part  unmolested.  A(dioris  (the  Ilakori  of 
the  monuments,  about  wx.  40^)  rej)ulscd  a  Persian  attack  ])y  the 
aid  of  (J reek  mercenaries  iiiuh'r  the  Athenian  (/habrias.  Nee- 
tani'bo  1.  (the  Nekht-ncbf  or  Nekt-har-liebi  of  the  monuments, 
about  n.e.  3S7--^01)),  whose  name  is  preserved  on  some  fine  >vorks 
of  art,  del\'n(h'd  th(^  hind  Buccessfidly  against  a  still  more  formid- 
abU'  attack,  though  the  Athenian  auxiliaries  went  over  to  the 
Ti'rsians  (u.e.  37H).  His  successor,  Taclios  or  Teos  (about  b.c. 
8(51),  dared  to  concert  with  the  Atiienians  and  ]jacedivmonians 
an  invasion  of  Asia.  But  the  scheme  was  ruined  by  the  dissatis- 
faction of  Agesihius  at  the  subordinate  command  assigned  to 
hi\n  ;  the  needful  taxes  roused  the  discontent  of  the  Egyptians  ; 
and  when  Tachos  had  marched  as  far  as  Pluenicia,  liis  son  Nec- 
tanebo  was  placed  on  the  throne,  and  Tachos  tied  to  Artaxerxcs 
]\rni'mon.  A  civil  war  followed,  in  whieh  Nectanebo  II.  succeed- 
ed, with  the  aid  of  Agesilaus,  in  defeating  the  partisans  of  the 
late  king.  The  power  of  Nectanebo  was  so  tinnly  established,  that 
he  not  only  held  out  against  the  Persians,  but  aided  the  Phceni- 
eians  to  revolt,  sending  them  a  force  of  4000  Greeks  under  Mentor 
the  Rhodian.  Put  when  Artaxerxcs  Ochus  advaiu'cJ  at  the  head 
of  an  inmiense  army,  McntA>r  deserted  to  him,  Pluvnicia  and  (Vprus 
were  subdued,  and  Nectanebo  jn'cjnired  to  resist  a  new  invasion. 
Pelusium,  garrisoned  by  5000  Greeks,  rejielled  the  first  assault, 
but  Mectanebo  lost  heart  and  fled  to  ]\[emphis.  Pelusium  then 
surrendered,  and  M'hile  Mentor  was  subduing  the  other  fortresses, 
Nectanebo  cscajied  by  the  river  into  Ethiopia  (about  ii.e.  353). 
Thus  ended  the  Tliirtieth  and  last  native  Dynasty  of  the  kings 
who  had  governed  Egypt  for  ]>erhaps  twenty-four  centuries  ;  and 
for  twenty-two  centuries  nu)re  she  has  been  ruled  by  foreigner. 

Egyptian  art  scarcely  shows  a  symj^tom  of  decline  under  these 
latest  independent  dynasties,  but  rather  an  increase  of  grace  and 
delicacy,  due  probably  to  Greek  influence.     Examples  may  bo 


B.C.  35ri-30.]  FliO.M  TilE  PERSIAN  TO  THE  ROMAN  CONQUEST.    141 

hcjsn  in  the  intorcolurnnar  Blab  of  green  Lasalt,  Bf;iilptured  in  in- 
taglio, of  ]S'ectanebo  II.,  and  the  obelifekH  erected  by  Xeetanebo 
I.,  in  front  of  the  temple  of  Tlioth,  now  in  the  British  MuBeurn. 
The  Museum  is  rich  in  antiquities  of  this  period,  btougljt  cliiefly 
from  Cairo  and  Alexandria,  but  many  of  them  had  been  prf> 
viously  transferred  to  those  cities  from  places  now  unknown. 
Among  them  is  the  splen^lid  sarcophagus  of  Nectanebo  I.,  former- 
ly called  the  sarcophagus  of  Alexander, 

The  restored  Persian  dominion,  forming  the  T/iiri^-fird  JJy- 
ri/iHty  (Oclius,  Arses,  and  Darius  Codomannusj,  lasted  less  than 
twenty  years.  Ochus  emulated  the  cruelties  of  Cambyses  in  his 
treatment  of  the  conquered  province  ;  but  he  only  survived  his  vic- 
tory a  few  years.  In  n.c.  882  Egypt  joyfully  submitted  to  Alex- 
ander, who  justly  regarded  it  as  the  gem  of  his  new  diadem,  and 
prepared  to  make  Alexandria  the  commercial  capital  of  the  world. 
Tlic  story  of  his  visit  to  Egypt  we  res^^rve  for  his  own  history. 
On  his  death  Egypt  fell  to  his  general  Ptolemy,  the  son  of  Lagus 
(b.c.  323),  whose  dynasty  lasted  for  three  centuries.  Tlie  earlier 
Ptolemies  ruled  Egypt  witlj  equal  sagacity  and  moderation,  carry- 
ing out  those  schemes  of  Alexander  which  enriched  their  country 
with  the  commerce  of  the  world,  distributing  impartial  justice, 
and  extending  religious  toleration  to  Greeks  and  p]gy j^tians  alike. 
While,  under  their  munificent  patronage,  learning  and  science 
found  a  new  seat  at  Alexandria,  the  temples  of  Egypt  were  re- 
stored and  eidarged  in  the  style  and  spirit  of  the  Pharaohs.  TIjb 
wars,  which  were  for  the  most  part  forced  upon  them  by  the  am- 
bition of  the  Seleucid  kings  of  Syria,  had  little  effect  on  Egypt 
itself,  and  the  toleration  of  the  Ptolemies,  when  they  were  masters 
of  Judiea,  fonns  a  bright  contrast  to  the  fanatical  violence  of  An- 
tiochus  Epiphanes  and  his  successors.  At  length  the  nobler  char- 
acter of  the  race  died  out.  Family  dissensions  tenjj>ted  a  recourse 
to  the  arbitration  of  Itome  (b.c.  1C4).  From  that  moment  the 
end  was  certain,  and  it  came  after  a  long  period  of  decline.  But, 
before  she  yielded  to  her  fate,  Egypt  had  almost  revenged  herself 
on  the  masters  of  the  world,  the  empire  of  which  was  well-nigh 
bartered  by  Julius,  and  was  resigned  by  Antonius,  for  the  charms 
of  Cleopatra.  The  battle  of  Actium,  and  the  deaths  of  Antony 
and  Cleopatra,  left  Egypt  as  the  final  prize  of  Octavian  ;  and  it 
ber^ame  a  Roman  province  in  b.c.  30. 

But  its  ]>olitical  absorption  left  its  commercial  and  intellec- 
tual ]>re-eminence  undiminished.  Under  the  rule  of  Rome  it  en- 
joyed the  commerce  between  the  provinces  of  the  "West  and  the 


142  THE  HISTORY  OF  EGYPT.  [Chap.  VH. 

rich  laiidri  of  the  furthest  East.  Its  schools  of  pliilosophy  and  tlie- 
ology  have  left  their  impress  on  tlic  tliought  and  belief  of  Christen- 
dom. When  coiiquorcd  hy  the  Anihs  (a.d.  G39),  Egypt  soon  be- 
came the  chief  peat  of  their  learning,  and  to  this  day  it  is  the  coun- 
try where  the  character  and  manners  of  the  race  can  be  best  seen. 
Ecduced  for  a  time  to  com])arativc  insignificance  by  the  Turkish 
conquest  and  the  change  of  the  route  to  India,  it  seems  to  have 
begun  a  new  history  with  the  present  century.  As  the  supposed 
key  to  the  empire  of  the  East,  it  roused  the  ambition  of  Napoleon 
and  called  forth  the  might  of  England.  A  more  peaceful  rivalry 
began  when  science  once  more  made  it  the  highway  to  India,  with 
results  to  the  country  yet  to  be  seen,  but  certain  to  be  vast. 

In  the  above  outline  of  the  history  of  Egypt,  the  interest  of  the 
subject,  and  the  light  thrown  upon  it  by  recent  discoveries,  have 
led  us  to  treat  it  more  exhaustively  than  would  be  generally 
consistent  with  the  limits  of  our  work.  In  the  case  of  countries 
better  known,  and  whose  annals  abound  in  a  multitude  of  de- 
tails, such  a  method  would  be  impossible.  But,  where  the  facts 
arc  com})arativcly  few,  and  the  information  only  to  be  found  in 
large,  elaborate,  and  expensive  works,  we  attempt  to  put  before 
the  reader,  as  nearly  as  possible,  the  compendious  sum  of  existing 
knowledge.  And  even,  as  we  have  said  before,  where  our  knowl- 
edge is  still  imperfect  or  very  doubtful,  we  prefer  to  state,  with 
the  necessary  reserve,  the  opinions  of  the  best  authorities,  if  only 
as  a  convenient  starting-point  for  further  investigation,  rather 
than  to  draw  the  erasing  stile  of  ruthless  scepticism  over  records 
which  certainly  contain  much  knowledge  worth  preserving,  though 
clouded  with  much  ignorance  worth  dispelling.  Labour  in  this 
field  may  be  often  spent  in  vain,  though  only  for  a  time  ;  but  we 
had  rather  lose  a  large  part  of  our  labour  than  be  content  to 
leave  this  chapter  of  our  history 

"  In  cloud  instead,  and  cver-during  dark," 

and  the  reader,  from  such  information  as  can  be  given, 

"  Cut  off ;  and,  for  the  book  of  knowledge  fair. 
Presented  with  a  universal  blank 
Of  [Egypt's]  works,  to  him  expunged  and  razed, 
And  wisdom  at  one  entrance  (luitc  shut  out." 


Note. — Special  acknowledgment  is  due  of  the  use  made,  in  the  two 
preceding  chapters,  of  Sir  J.  G.  Wilkinson's  Manners  and  Customs  of  the 
Ancient  J-Jgt/ptians,  of  liis  Essays  on  Egyptian  History  and  Antiquities,  in 
the  AjypcmUx  to  Book  II.  of  Rawlinson's  Herodotus,  and  of  Mr.  Poole's 
HoT(n  yEgyptiac(z  and  article  Eyypt  in  the  Encyclojxxdia  Britajinica,  9th 
edition. 


•,i'/  :/p^ 


DESTINY  OF  THE  HEBREW  NATION.  143 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


THE  HEBREW  THEOCRACY  AND  MONARCHY. 
B.C.  1491  TO  B.C.  508. 


"  Behold  the  measure  of  the  promise  fiU'd ; 
See  Salem  built,  the  labour  of  a  God ! 
Bright  as  the  sun,  the  sacred  city  shines  ; 
All  kingdoms  and  all  princes  of  the  earth 
Flock  to  that  light ;  the  glory  of  all  lands 
Flows  into  her  ;  unbounded  is  her  joy, 
And  endless  her  increase." — Cowpkr. 


destiny  of  the  hebrew  nation — review  of  their  history  in  egypt— joseph — the  israe- 
lites in  goshen — the  oppression— moses  :  as  an  egyptian  prince — his  flight — hi9 
divine  legation — the  plagues,  the  passover,  and  the  exodus — heathen  traditi0n8 
of  the  exodus — march  to  sinai — the  mosaic  law — the  tvilderness — conquest  of 
periea — death  of  moses— campaigns  op  joshua — division  and  settlement  of  canaan 

— times  op  the  judges — servitude  to  the  philistines — samuel,  prophet  and  judge 

the  kingdom — saul — david— full  conquest  to  the  land— jeru  salem,  the  capital 
and  sanctuary — solomon — israel  a  great  monarchy — building  of  the  temple — 
Solomon's  idolatries — foreign  enemies  and  internal  factions — division  of  the  two 
kingdoms — their  separate  history — steady  declension  of  israel — foreign  alliances 
and  idolatries— the  prophets — elijah  and  elisha — relations  to  syria,  judah,  as- 
syria, and  egypt — captivity  of  the  ten  tribes — their  subsequent  fate — kingdom  op 
judah — idolatries  and  reforms — asa — jehoshaphat — the  high  priest  jehoiada — 
dzziah — idolatries  of  ahaz — the  prophets,  especially  isaiah — wars  with  israel 
and  syria — hezekiah — destruction  of  sennacherib — josiah — invasion  of  pharaoh- 
necho — nebuchadnezzar — the  captivity — condition  of  the  jews  during  the  cap- 
TIVITY. 

The  picture,  wliicli  we  have  endeavoured  to  fill  up  in  tlie  pre- 
ceding chapter,  of  the  primeval  monarchy  of  Egypt,  forms  as  yet 
only  the  background  of  the  World's  History.  The  chief  interest 
of  the  story  of  our  race  remains  with  the  people  of  Israel.  The 
other  nations  have  lapsed  into  idolatry,  and  have  sunk  beneath 
the  power  of  oppressive  rulers.  They  have  failed,  in  the  second 
probation  of  the  world,  to  reach  the  highest  standard  of  social 
life, — liberty  regulated  by  laws  in  harmony  with  the  will  of 
God.  So  one  family  has  been  chosen  out  of  all  the  rest,  to  form 
a  nation  which  should  reach  that  standard,  or  else  prove  by  its 
failure  the  need  of  some  more  powerful  principle  than  the  purest 
laws.  The  moral  aspect  of  this  great  experiment,  in  bringing  man 
to  the  consciousness  of  his  own  weakness,  and  so  reducing  him  to 
submission  to  divine  grace,  belongs  to  the  province  of  religion. 
But  it  has  a  political  aspect  too ;  and  the  story  of  the  chosen 


144  THE  HEBREW  THEOCRACY.  [Chap.  VHI. 

people,  as  a  nation,  forms  at  this  point  tlie  main  stream  of  the 
history  of  the  world. 

We  see  them  assembled,  apart  from  all  the  other  nations,  in 
the  recesses  of  Mount  Sinai,  to  receive  a  law  through  the  hands  of 
a  divinely-appointed  legislator.  And  yet  their  separation  is  not  a 
perfect  isolation  from  the  other  peoples.  In  the  presence  of  that 
"  mixed  multitude  "  who  went  with  them  out  of  Egypt,  and  in  the 
extension  of  the  chief  provisions  of  the  law  to  "  the  stranger  within 
their  gates,"  we  see  the  general  adaptation  of  the  Law  to  the 
whole  race  of  man.  Meanwhile,  however,  it  is  fenced  about  with 
signs  and  sanctions,  to  bind  it  with  peculiar  force,  in  the  first 
instance,  on  the  people  chosen  to  receive  it.  The  perversion  of 
what  was  peculiar  to  them  into  a  selfish  claim  of  exclusive 
privileges  was  one  of  the  proofs  of  their  unworthiness  to  fill 
their  true  position.  Israel,  called  forth  in  the  character  of  the 
Son  of  God,  was  only  the  eldest  of  many  brethren.  The  present 
favour  and  pure  law  of  God  were  given  to  him  in  trust  for  all 
the  rest,  and  his  true  mission  was  to  diffuse  knowledge  and  life 
over  all  the  world. 

For  this  the  previous  stages  of  the  people's  history  were  a  pre- 
paration. Called  out  from  the  idolatry  and  tyranny  of  Chaldffia, 
Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  were,  so  to  speak,  just  shown  the 
future  inheritance  of  Canaan,  which  their  sons  had  just  time  to 
prove  their  unfitness  to  enjoy  as  yet,  when  they  were  subjected 
to  a  new  course  of  discipline  in  Egypt,  A  period  of  prosperity, 
during  which  they  enjoyed  the  favour  of  the  king,  and  occupied 
the  richest  district  of  the  land,  encouraged  their  rapid  increase ; 
nor  did  their  numbers  decline  under  hard  bondage  and  cruelty. 
"Tlie  more  they  afflicted  them,  the  more  they  multiplied  and 
grew."  *  While  their  sufterings  trained  them  to  endurance  and 
steadfastness,  they  learnt  from  their  oppressors  the  arts  of  civiliza- 
tion,— a  possession  more  precious  than  the  jewels  of  gold  and  silver 
they  carried  with  them  out  of  Egypt.  Having  gone  down  into 
that  land  a  family,  they  came  out  of  it  a  nation. 

We  have  now  to  trace  briefly  the  stages  of  this  progress. 
While  in  Canaan,  the  patriarchs  led  a  nomad  life.  They  dwelt  in 
tents,  and  their  wealth  consisted  iu  flocks  and  herds.  They  were 
dependent  for  corn  upon  the  desultory  agriculture  of  the  Canaan- 
ites  ;  and  when  that  failed,  their  resource  was  in  the  abundance 
of  Egypt.  Twice  in  three  generations  were  they  driven  to  that 
resource ;  and,  on  the  second  occasion.  Divine  Providence  had 

*  Exodu3  i.  12. 


B.C.  1706.]  THE  ELEVATION  OF   JOSEPH.  145 

prepared  the  way,  by  Joseph's  elevation,  for  their  settlement  in 
the  laud  (b.c.  1706).* 

The  attempt  to  represent  these  events  as  a  doubtful  Hebrew 
tradition  is  refuted  by  internal  evidence.  Oriental  history  is  famil- 
iar with  the  elevation  of  foreign  slaves  to  the  post  of  prime  min- 
ister, and  even  to  the  throne  itself;  and  all  the  attendant  circum- 
stances are  thoroughly  Egyptian.  The  names  of  Joseph's  master 
and  his  father-in-law,  Potiphar,  and  Potipherah  {Pet-Phra^  dedi- 
cated to  the  Sun) ;  his  own,  Zaphnath-Paaneah  {defender  of  life) ;  f 
and  that  of  his  wife,  Asenath  {As-NeitJi^  daughter  or  servant  of 
Neith),  would  never  have  been  invented  by  a  Jew.  The  office  held 
by  Potiphar,  and  the  shamelessness  of  his  wife, — the  functions  of 
Pharaoh's  servants,  and  his  mode  of  treating  them, — the  belief 
in  dreams,  and  resort  to  professional  magicians  for  their  interpreta- 
tion,— the  importance  assigned  to  the  Nile,  the  many-eared  corn, 
the  cattle,  and  the  reeds,  in  Pharaoh's  dream, — the  notice  of  the 
tenure  of  the  land,  and  the  exemption  of  the  priests  from  taxation, 
— ^these  and  several  other  features  of  the  narrative  correspond 
altogether  to  what  we  know  of  Egypt.  The  image  of  Joseph, 
clothed  in  fine  linen,  decorated  with  a  necklace  of  gold  and  the 
royal  signet-ring,  and  mounted  on  a  chariot  of  state,  might  be 
accurately  depicted  from  existing  monuments  which  represent  the 
processions  of  kings  and  priests  ;  while  the  shaving  of  his  whole 
body  before  he  went  into  Pharaoh's  presence,  is  a  custom  of  cere- 
monial cleanliness  attested  by  Herodotus. 

JS'or  must  we  in  vindicating  the  historic  reality  of  Joseph's 
position  in  Egypt,  forget  his  higher  place  in  the  history  of  the 
world.  His  elevation  was  earned  by  the  noblest  moral  qualities, — 
steadfastness  to  principle,  fidelity  to  duty,  patience  in  adversity, 
filial  affection,  and  brotherly  foi'giveness  of  the  greatest  wrongs. 
E'^n  if  we  admit  that  his  father's  partiality  and  his  prophetic 
dreams  elated  him  too  much,  the  youthful  error  was  dearly  paid 
for.  If  he  learned  in  Egypt  to  profess  the  power  of  divination, 
and  to  swear  by  the  life  of  Pharaoh,  we  must  remember  (what  is 
too  often  forgotten  in  studying  Scripture  characters),  that  the  best 
of  men  are  not  entirely  free  from  the  moral  weaknesses  of  humanity. 
We  need  not  discuss,  in  this  case,  the  fairness  of  judging  a  man's 
character  by  his  political  conduct;  for  the  charge  brought  against 
Joseph,  of  oppressive  policy  towards  the  Egyptian  agriculturists,  is 

*  This  is  Ussher's  date.     Mr.  Poole  places  the  eveut  in  b.c.  1867,  under  the  Shep- 
herd Kings,  and  Lepsius  as  late  as  b.c.  1500,  under  Amenoph  III. 

\  We  give  the  most  probable  interpretation,  but  the  sense  is  not  quite  determined. 

VOL.  I. — 10 


146  THE  HEBREW  THEOCRACY.  [Chap.  VHI. 

liardly  borne  out  by  a  more  accurate  knowledge  of  the  transaction. 
The  question  is  complicated  by  the  doubt  respecting  the  dynasty 
then  reigning ;  if  the  Sliepherd  Kings,  tliis  policy  may  have  been  a 
final  stc})  in  the  s\ibjugation  of  the  country.  In  any  case,  we  have 
not  sufficient  information  about  the  tenure  of  the  land  in  Egypt,  to 
judge  of  the  chaiiges  effected  by  Joseph.  It  would  seem  that  the 
fifth  of  the  whole  })roduce,  which  Pharaoh  took  up  by  his  advice  in 
the  seven  years  of  plenty,  was  simply  the  double  of  the  usual  tithe 
or  quitrent ;  and  when,  during  the  famine,  he  had  purchased  from 
the  people  their  rights  in  the  land,  he  restored  to  them  their  pos- 
sessions under  the  king,  in  consideration  of  their  paying  the  same 
rent  of  one-fifth  as  a  permanent  impost,  in  acknowledgment  of 
Pharaoh's  ownership.  At  all  events,  his  policy  had  saved  the 
nation  from  destruction;  while  it  answered  that  higher  end  in  the 
preservation  of  the  chosen  family,  which  makes  Joseph  so  signal 
an  example  of  an  overruling  Providence,  and  which  he  himself 
described  in  those  memorable  words  to  his  brethren  : — "  As  for 
you,  ye  thought  evil  against  me ;  but  God  meant  it  unto  good,  to 
bring  to  pass,  as  it  is  this  day,  to  save  much  people  alive."  ^ 

The  land  of  Goshen,  which  was  assigned  by  Pharaoh  to  the 
Israelites,  lay  on  the  eastern  frontier  of  the  Delta,  along  the 
easternmost  or  Pelusiac  branch  of  the  Nile.  It  forms  the  northern 
slope  of  the  "  Arabian  mountain-chain,"  which  borders  the  Nile- 
valley  on  the  east,  but  turns  off  eastward,  at  the  apex  of  the  Delta, 
towards  the  Gulf  of  Suez.  This  position,  between  the  alluvial  flat 
of  the  Delta  and  the  sands  of  the  Desert,  made  it  peculiarly  fit  for 
pasturing  the  flocks  of  the  new  settlers.  Those  who  place  the 
entrance  of  the  Israelites  under  the  Eighteenth  Dynasty,  regard  the 
district  as  having  been  left  vacant  by  the  expulsion  of  the  Shep- 
herds, whose  great  fortress  was  at  Avaris,  the  later  Pelusium.  If, 
however,  this  event  took  place  under  the  Shepherd  Kings  them- 
selves, we  can  understand  their  policy  in  placing  a  kindred  pastoral 
race  on  the  eastern  frontier,  where  they  were  threatened  by  the 
power  of  the  Assyrians  or  Chaldseans.  The  capital  of  the  district 
was  On  (afterwards  Heliopolis),  the  sacred  city  of  the  Sun,  a  place 
with  which  Joseph  was  specially  connected  by  his  marriage  with 
■the  daughter  of  Potipherah,  the  priest  of  On.f   It  is  an  interesting 

*  Genesis  1.  20. 

f  It  was  in  the  land  of  Goshen  that  Joseph  met  his  father  (Genesis  xlvi.  28,  29). 
The  LXX.  places  the  meeting  at  "-iteroonpolis,  in  the  land  of  Ramesses,"  the  place 
which  seeras  to  have  been  the  starting-point  of  the  Israelites  at  the  exodus.  The 
Coptic  version  puts,  in  place  of  Ileroonpolis,  the  Pithom  mentioned  on  the  next 
page. 


B.C.  1706.]  TPIE   ISRAELITES  IN  GOSHEN.  147 

coincidence,  that  in  the  fabulous  story  of  the  exodus  preserved 
by  Josephus  from  Manetho,  Moses  is  said  to  liave  been  originally 
an  Egyptian  priest  at  Heliopolis.  A  further  indication  of  the 
locality  of  Goshen  is  found  in  the  Psalm  which  speaks  of  God  as 
having  done  wonders — the  miracles  which  preceded  the  exodus — 
"  in  the  field  of  Zoan,"  the  very  ancient  city  otherwise  called 
Tanis,  on  the  Pelusiac  branch  of  the  Nile.*  In  this  land,  too,  the 
Israelites,  during  their  servitude,  built  the  cities  of  Pithom,  (the 
City  of  Turn,  or  Atum,  a  name  for  the  sun),  and  Raamses,  or 
Eameses,  as  store-cities  for  their  oppressor.f  Both  these  places 
appear  to  have  been  within  the  canton  (nome)  of  Heliopolis,  on 
the  line  of  the  canal  of  Pameses  the  Great.  The  name  of  the 
latter  city  has  been  adduced  as  a  decisive  proof  that  Rameses  II. 
was  the  oppressor  of  the  Israelites  ;  Pameses  I.  being  out  of  the 
question,  owing  to  the  shortness  of  his  reign.:}:  But  it  is  unsafe  to 
build  such  an  argument  on  a  name  which,  from  its  significance 
(the  Son  of  Rd),  may  have  been  the  title  of  many  kings,  and  was 
in  fact  borne  by  the  son  of  Amosis,  the  first  king  of  the  Eighteenth 
Dynasty.  N^either  would  the  occurrence  of  the  name  of  Pameses 
II.  on  the  ruins  at  Abo^l  Kesheyd  be  decisive,  even  if  Lepsius  were 
certainly  right  in  identifying  those  ruins  with  the  city  of  Pameses. 
But  this  can  hardl}'-  be  the  true  site,  both  for  other  reasons,  and 
because  it  is  only  eight  miles  from  the  ancient  head  of  the  Gulf  of 
Suez,  a  distance  inconsistent  with  the  three  days'  march  and  the  two 
halting-placies  of  the  Israelites  at  the  exodus.  Tlie  site  of  Pameses 
seems  to  have  been  much  nearer  to  Heliopolis,  and  rather  at  the 
western  than  the  eastern  end  of  the  valley  called  the  Wadi-t-Tumey- 
lat,  through  which  the  route  of  the  Israelites  probably  lay.  It  may 
perhaps  correspond  to  the  mound  called  El-Ahhaseeych,  about 
thirty  miles  from  the  ancient  shore  of  the  Gulf,  and  about  the 
same  from  Heliopolis.  If  we  could  fix  the  exact  site,  we  should 
know  the  starting-point  of  the  Israelites  on  their  exodus. 

Meanwhile  we  must  return  to  their  condition  in  the  land  of 
Goshen.  Separated  from  the  Egyptians  by  their  position  and  by 
their  occupation  as  shepherds,  they  retained  their  own  patriarchal 
constitution  under  the  princes  of  their  twelve  tribes.     The  Scrip- 

*  Psalm  Ixxviii.  43.  The  advocates  of  the  later  date  of  the  exodus  appeal  to  the 
monuments  of  Rameses  the  Great  at  Tanis,  in  proof  of  its  being  a  favourite  royal  resi- 
dence under  the  Nineteenth  Dynasty. 

f  Exodus  i.  11 ;  the  LXX.  adds,  "and  On,  which  is  Heliopolis."  They  may  have 
been  employed  in  fortifying  the  city. 

X  Rameses  I.,  tlTe  last  king  of  the  Eighteenth  Dynasty,  and  grandfather  of  Ramesea 
II.,  reigned  only  one  year,  b.c.  1446  (Poole),  or  b.c.  1324  (Wilkinson). 


148  THE  HEBREW  THEOCRACY.  [Chap,  VHI. 

ture  liistory  gives  us  incidental  proofs  of  the  influence  retained  by- 
Joseph  during  his  life,  which  must  have  helped  to  preserve  the 
unity  and  harmony  of  the  people.*  From  a  family  of  seventy 
persons,  they  grew  in  215  years  f  into  a  nation  so  numerous, 
that  they  were  "  more  and  mightier  than  the  Egyptians,"  who 
hecame  alarmed  lest  they  should  use  their  position  on  the  fron- 
tier to  unite  with  the  enemies  of  Egypt.:}:  The  flight  of  Moses 
to  the  priest-prince  of  Midian  seems  to  imply  friendly  relations 
between  the  Israelites  and  their  Arab  neighbours  on  the  eastern 
frontier  of  the  Delta.  The  cruel  servitude  and  oppression  which 
followed  under  the  "  new  king  which  knew  not  Joseph,"  seems  to 
have  lasted  somewhat  more  than  the  period  of  eighty  years  from 
the  birth  to  the  call  of  Moses.§  We  have  an  interesting  parallel 
to  the  Scriptural  account  of  its  severity,  in  the  statement  of  Dio- 
dorus,  that  the  Babylonian  captives  of  Eameses  II.  rebelled  in 
consequence  of  the  like  intolerable  burthens.  An  inscription  of 
the  same  king  states  that  no  native  Egyptian  was  permitted  to 
work  on  his  buildings,  «Rid  the  monuments  show  us  foreign  cap- 
tives thus  employed.  Tlie  law  of  conquest,  especially  as  inter- 
preted in  the  East,  condemned  that  unhappy  class  to  oppressive 
labour.  But  the  position  of  the  Israelites  was  very  difi:erent. 
Their  long  and  peaceful  abode  in  the  land  assigned  to  them  implies 
the  possession  of  definite  privileges,  which  were  now  violently  with- 
drawn under  the  impulse  of  fear,  that  great  incentive  to  tyranny. 
But  when  to  this  was  added  the  attempt  to  stop  their  increase  by 
the  murder  of  their  infants,  the  atrocious  crime  was  justly  punished 
by  the  miraculous  death  of  the  firstborn  of  the  Egyptians. 

*  Genesis  1.  15—26. 

\  See  Genesis  1.  23.  It  is  no  part  of  our  plan  to  discuss  questions  of  Biblical 
criticism  and  interpretation,  such  as  whether  these  numbers  are  to  be  taken  literally, 
and  how  the  slightly  different  statements  respecting  them  are  to  be  reconciled.  It  is 
enough  for  our  purpose  that  the  increase  was  not  impossible,  especially  taking  poly- 
gamy into  the  account.  It  has  been  suggested  that  their  numbers  were  swelled  by 
other  Semitic  peoples,  who  were  brought  as  captives  into  Egypt,  and  by  many  of  the 
Egyptians  themselves.  That  they  intermarried  with  the  Egyptians  is  seen  by  Joseph's 
own  example,  and  mention  is  made  of  the  mixed  multitude  who  went  up  with  them  out 
of  Egypt ;  but  that  multitude  is  evidently  not  included  in  the  enumeration  of  the  people 
(Exodus  xii.  37,  38). 

X  Exodus  i.  8,  9  ;  Psalm  cv.  24. 

§  According  to  Ussher's  system,  Joseph  was  sold  into  Egypt  B.C.  1T29  ;  he  was  thirty 
years  old  (Genesis  xli.  46)  when  he  stood  before  Pharaoh,  B.C.  1715  ;  his  death  at  110 
years  old  was  in  B.C.  1635.  The  birth  of  Moses  was  in  B.C.  1571.  The  interval  is  sixty- 
four  years  ;  but,  as  the  oppression  did  not  begin  till  after  the  death  of  the  whole  gene- 
ration who  had  lived  with  Joseph  (Exodus  i.  6),  and  perhaps  not  till  after  a  further  period 
of  prosperity  (v.  7),  its  beginning  may  be  fixed  near  the  end  of  that  interval.  It  is  rea- 
sonable also  to  allow  as  much  time  as  possible  for  the  previous  increase  of  the  people. 


B.C.  1571.]  BIKTH  OP  MOSES.  .  149 

In  the  meantime,  the  king's  sanguinary  edict  proved  the  first 
step  in  the  series  of  providential  events  which  prepared  a  deliverer 
for  Israel  in  the  person  of  the  greatest  man,  next  to  the  Divine 
Exemplar  of  humanity,  that  the  world  has  ever  seen.  Moses,  the 
son  of  Amram,  of  the  tribe  of  Levi,  hidden  from  his  birth  by  the 
faith  of  his  parents,  was  rescued  by  Pharaoh's  daughter  from 
the  fate  to  which  they  were  obliged  at  last  to  expose  him,  and  was 
brought  up  at  the  Egyptian  court  as  her  adopted  son.  The  state- 
ment of  Stephen,  that  "  he  was  instructed  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the 
Egyptians,"  * — learning  of  which  the  priests  held  the  key — is  so  far 
confirmed  by  the  tradition  handed  down  by  Manetho,  and  copied  by 
several  ancient  writers,  that  he  was  an  Egyptian  priest  of  Helio- 
polis.  The  same  high  authority  adds,  that  "  he  was  mighty  in 
words  and  deeds,"  evidently  while  still  at  Pharaoh's  court.  We 
cannot,  however,  accept  without  confirmation  the  tradition  pre- 
served by  Josephus  of  the  victories  of  Moses  over  the  Ethiopians 
who  had  invaded  Egypt, — his  pursuit  of  them  to  their  own  land, 
with  circumstances  too  marvellous  for  sober  history, — his  capture 
of  their  capital,  Saba,  and  his  marriage  to  the  daughter  of  the 
Ethiopian  king.f  According  to  this  legend,  it  was  the  ungrateful 
jealousy  of  the  Egyptians  that  caused  his  flight  to  Midian,  a  step 
which  the  authentic  narrative  of  Scripture  ascribes  to  his  deliberate 
choice  of  the  cause  of  his  suffering  brethren. :{: 

This  choice,  which  the  Apostle  places  among  the  brightest  ex- 
amples of  faith  in  unseen  realities,  was,  even  from  the  mere  worldly 
point  of  view,  an  act  of  the  noblest  self-renunciation.  In  the 
prime  of  life,  and  in  the  fall  flush  of  success,  enjoying  princely 
rank,  and  on  a  level  with  the  priests  in  the  knowledge  that  gave 
them  power  and  wealth,  Moses  descended  from  his  lofty  position, 
and  probably  renounced  the  hope  of  one  yet  higher,  to  share  the 
sufierings  and  degradation  of  a  nation  of  oppressed  slaves.  That 
he  had  a  prophetic  knowledge  of  his  mission  to  deliver  the  people, 
is  clearly  intimated  by  Stephen.  §  When  "  it  came  into  his  heart 
to  visit  the  children  of  Israel,"  we  may  suppose  that  he  had  little 
knowledge  and  no  experience  of  their  actual  condition.  His  first 
bm'st  of  indignation  at  seeing  the  cruel  beating  of  a  Hebrew  by  an 
Egyptian  taskmaster  broke  through  all  restraint.  But  while  by 
slaying  the  oppressor  he  cast  off  for  ever  his  connexion  with  the 

*  Acts  vii.  22. 

\  An  Ethiopian  wife  of  Moses  is  mentioned  in  Numbers  xii.  1. 

■\.  Exodus  ii.  11,  compared  with  Acts  vii.  23,  24,  and  Hebrews  xi.  24 — 26. 

8  Acts  vii.  25. 


150  THE  HEBREW  THEOCRACY.  [Chap.  VHI. 

court,  he  found  that  the  people  were  too  dispirited  by  slavery  to 
accept  his  aid  and  leadership ;  and,  rejected  by  them  and  pro- 
scribed by  Pharaoh,  he  fled  to  the  land  of  Midian. 

The  ilidianites  were  a  tribe  of  Keturaite  Arabs,  having  their 
chief  seats  along  the  eastern  side  of  the  eastern  or  JElanitic  gulf 
of  tlie  Eed  Sea,  and  sometimes  pasturing  their  flocks  in  the  penin- 
sula of  Sinai.  It  seems  to  have  been  in  the  latter  region  that 
Moses  found  refuge  with  Jethro,  or  Kaguel,  a  patriarchal  prince  and 
priest,  whose  daughter  he  married.  To  the  forty  years  of  learning 
and  activity  which  he  had  spent  in  Egj^t,  were  now  added  forty 
more  of  lonely  meditation,  as  he  fed  his  father-in-law's  flocks 
amidst  the  grandest  solitudes  of  nature.  The  idea  naturally  suggests 
itself  that,  with  the  maturity  of  thought  acquired  by  such  a  mode 
of  life,  he  received  also  the  revelations  which  he  recorded  in  the 
Book  of  Genesis.  At  length,  in  the  most  secret  recess  of  the 
desert  of  Mount  Sinai,  at  "  Horeb,  the  mount  of  God  "  (doubtless 
an  ancient  sanctuary  of  the  Arabian  tribes),  he  was  brought  face  to 
face  with  Jehovah,  and  received  his  commission  to  lead  forth  the 
Israelites  to  worship  God  on  that  very  spot.  We  need  not  here 
enlarge  on  the  strictly  religious  aspects  of  this  great  epoch  in  the 
history  of  the  world. 

Returning  to  Egypt,  where  a  new  king  now  reigned,*  and 
joining  himself  with  his  brother  Aaron,  who  was  associated  with 
him  as  the  speaker  and  mediator,  Moses  first  presented  himself 
before  the  elders  of  the  Israelites.  Forty  years  of  continued  afflic- 
tion had  at  last  made  them  cry  to  God,  whom  they  had  almost 
forgotten  amidst  the  idolatries  of  Egypt,  and  prepared  them  to 
welcome  the  deliverer  they  had  before  rejected.  They  believed  the 
signs  which  proved  that  "  Jehovah  had  visited  His  people,"  and 
bowed  their  heads  and  worshipped.f 

The  details  of  the  contest  that  ensued  with  Pharaoh  belong  to 
Scripture  history ;  nor  can  we  properly  discuss  here  the  theological 
question  it  involves.  :j:  The  first  demand  was  moderate — that  the 
people  might  go  forth  to  keep  a  feast  to  Jehovah  their  God  in  the 
wilderness.  On  arriving  there,  it  was  clearly  implied  that  they 
were  to  be  at  God's  disposal ;  and  Moses  steadily  rejected  every 
ofler  short  of  their  departure  with  their  entire  families  and  flocks. 
The  claim  of  God  was  founded  on  that  relation  which  is  the  key 
to  the  whole  history  of  the  Hebrew  nation,  "  Israel  is  my  son, 
even  my  firstborn ; "  and  Pharaoh's  obstinate  resolution  to  keep 
in  slavery  the  people  who  thus  belonged  to  God,  was  met  from  the 

*  Exodus  iv.  19,  f  Exodus  iv.  29—31.  |  Romans  ix.  17,  18. 


B.C.  1491.]     THE  PLAGUES,  PASSOVER,  AND  EXODUS.  151 

ILrst  by  the  threat,  "  I  will  slay  thy  son,  even  thy  firstborn."  * 
To  this  infliction  the  other  plagues  were  but  preparatory,  giving 
the  king  and  people — for  they  sided  with  him — the  opportunity  of 
yielding  to  milder  chastisements.  The  nature  of  these  were  wonder- 
fully adapted  to  the  country,  the  habits,  and  the  superstitions  of  the 
Egyptians,  who  saw  not  only  the  common  plagues  of  their  country 
miraculously  aggravated,  but  its  best  blessings  made  the  sources 
of  disease  and  death ;  their  property  destroyed,  their  persons,  their 
gods,  and  their  sacred  river  polluted.  The  truly  miraculous 
nature  of  the  plagues  was  proved  by  the  vain  attempts  of  the 
magicians  to  imitate  them  beyond  the  point  which  mere  trickery 
could  reach,  and  the  shepherd's  staff  of  Moses  became  the  wonder- 
working rod  which  was  to  govern  and  guide  the  people  of  Israel. 
At  length  came  that  blow  which  was  the  first  threatened  and  the 
last  struck ;  and  while,  amidst  the  darkness  that  might  be  felt, 
every  Egyptian  house  resounded  with  the  wail  for  the  firstborn, 
from  the  palace  of  Pharaoh  to  the  captive's  dungeon, — while  the 
priests  howled  for  their  sacred  animals,  as  Jehovah 

"  equalled  with  one  stroke 
Botk  their  firstborn  and  all  their  bleating  gods," —  , 

ihe  emancipated  Israelites,  fully  equipped  for  their  departure,  and 
enriched  by  the  fears  of  their  neighbours,  ate  for  the  first  time 
that  great  feast  which  took  its  name  from  the  destroyer  "  passing 
over  "  their  houses,  marked  by  the  .blood  of  the  sacrificial  lamb, 
and  which  became  the  perpetual  type  of  a  still  higher  deliverance 
fi-om  death  and  bondage.  "  It  is  a  night  to  be  much  observed  "  in 
the  history  of  the  world,  as  well  as  in  the  annals  of  the  chosen 

race.f 

The  exodus  took  place  in  the  night  of  (or,  according  to  our 
reckoning,  before)  the  fourteenth  day  of  the  lunar  month  nearest 
to  the  vernal  equinox ;  and  this  month,  Abib  or  Nisan,  became 
thenceforth  the  first  of  the  Hebrew  ecclesiastical  year.  The  civil 
year  began  about  the  autumnal  equinox,  with  the  month  Tisri. 
The  period  of  430  years  fixed  in  God's  first  announcement  of  the 
captivity  to  Abraham  was  now  completed ;  and  this  period  must 
be  dated  from  the  call  of  Abraham:    the   actual  time  of  the 

*  Exodus  iv.  22,  23.  It  was  probably  a  very  old  principle  of  religion,  that  the  first-, 
bom  and  all  firstfruits  belonged  especially  to  God,  and  must  either  be  sacrificed  or 
redeemed.  The  Passover  gave  a  new  sanction  to  this  doctrine ;  and  in  it  the  Jews  offer- 
ed the  lamb  of  redemption,  before  bringing  to  God  the  firstfruits  of  the  year. 

f  Exodus  xii.  42. 


152  THE  HEBREW  THEOCRACY.  [Chap.  VHI. 

soj<3urn  in  Egy^t,  from  tlie  descent  of  Jacob  to  the  Exodus,  was 
215  years.* 

The  Jewish  Rabbinical  tradition  places  the  exodus  in  the  year 
of  the  world  2447,  that  is,  in  B.C.  1314;  but  the  rabbinical  chro- 
nology is  of  little  authority  by  itself,  f  This  date,  however,  falls 
within  tlie  reign  of  Men-ptah  or  Ptah-men,  the  son  of  Rameses 
the  Great  (b.c.  1328 — 1309),  according  to  the  chronology  of 
Bunsen,  Lepsius,  and  their  followers,  who  regard  this  king  as  the 
Pliaraoh  of  the  Exodus. :[:  They  rely  mainly  on  the  strange  account 
about  the  exodus  which  Josephus  gives  from  Manetho,  with  the 
strongest  protest  against  its  authenticity.  § 

The  story  is  that  King  Menophis  or  Amenophis  resolved  to  pro- 
pitiate the  gods  by  purging  the  land  of  all  lepers  and  unclean 
persons.  These,  to  the  number  of  80,000,  among  whom  were 
some  leprous  priests,  were  banished  to  the  quarries  in  the  eastern 
hills ;  but  the  king  afterwards  gave  them  the  city  of  Avaris  (Pelu- 
sium),  from  which  the  Shepherds  had  been  expelled.  Here  they 
chose  for  their  leader  an  apostate  priest  of  Heliopolis,  whose  name 
Osarseph  was  changed  to  Moses,  and  swore  obedience  to  him.  lie 
gave  them  new  laws,  bidding  them  disregard  the  gods  and  sacrifice 
the  sacred  animals,  and  forbidding  all  intercourse  with  the  other 
Eg}^tians.  He  fortified  the  city,  and  called  in  the  aid  of  the  ex- 
pelled Shepherds,  who  had  settled  at  Jerusalem,  and  who  advanced 
to  Avaris  with  an  army  of  200,000  men.  The  King  of  Egypt 
marched  against  them  with  300,000  men,  but  returned  to  Memphis 
through  fear  of  an  ancient  prophecy.  He  then  fled  to  Ethiopia, 
whence  he  returned  after  an  absence  of  thirteen  years,  drove  the 
rebels  out  of  Egypt,  and  pursued  them  to  the  frontier  of  Syria. 
The  story  is  equally  irreconcileable  with  the  Scripture,  and  with 
the  monuments  of  the  nineteen  years'  reign  of  Men-ptah,  which 
leaves  no  space  for  his  absence  for  thirteen  years  in  Ethiopia.  | 

*  Genesis  xv.  13  ;  Exodus  xii.  41  ;  Acts  vi.  7  ;  Galatians  iii.  17.  For  the  proof  of 
this  position,  af^ainst  those  who  date  the  430  years  from  the  descent  of  Jacob  into  Egypt, 
see  Clinton's  Essay  on  Scripture  Chronology,  Fasti  Helleniei,  Yol.  I.,  p.  283  ;  and  Mr. 
Poole's  art.  Chronology,  in  Smith's  Dictionary  of  the  Bible.  The  Captivity  itself  had 
lasted  215  years  (b.c.  1706—1491,  Ussher). 

\  See  note  on  Scripture  Chronology,  p.  10. 

X  A  slight  alteration  is  evidently  required  to  bring  the  exodus  to  the  last  year  of  hig 
reign.  Sir  J.  G.  Wilkinson,  while  adopting  the  opinion  of  Lepsius,  places  Ptah-men  aa 
late  as  B.C.  1245,  which  is  far  too  low  for  the  date  of  the  exodus.  Rawlinson's  Herodo- 
tus, Appendix  to  Book  II.  c.  viii.,  Vol.  II.  p.  372. 

§  Joseph,  contra  Apionem,  I.  26. 

H  It  is  even  at  variance  with  other  notices  of  the  exodus  in  the  lists  of  Manetho,  to 
which,  however,  we  must  not  attach  too  great  importance,  as  they  may  only  express  the 


B.C.  1491.]       HEATHEN  TRADITIONS   OF   THE  EXODUS.  153 

On  the  whole,  then,  it  seems  hopeless  to  fix  the  date  of  the 
exodus  bj  Manetho's  testimony,  and  least  of  all  can  we  depend 
upon  the  story  related  by  Josephus.  It  evidently  confuses  remi- 
niscences of  the  expulsion  of  the  Hyksos  with  the  exodus  of  the 
Israelites ;  nor  is  it  credible  that  the  latter  should  have  exercised 
the  power  ascribed  to  them  in  Egypt,  without  some  record  thereof 
in  their  own  history.  Weighing  the  story  critically  against  the 
Mosaic  record,  apart  from  all  higher  authority,  it  is  a  manifest 
invention  of  the  priests  to  conceal  a  great  national  disgrace,  and 
to  heap  odium  on  a  people  whom  they  hated. 

The  fable  by  which  the  Eg}^tian  priests  chose  to  hand  down 
the  story  of  their  great  national  disaster  is  related  not  only  by 
Josephus,  but  by  several  Greek  writers,  in  forms  varied  chiefly  by 
the  greater  or  lesser  degree  in  which  they  were  infected  by  the 
animosity  of  the  Egyptians  against  the  Jews.  But,  perverted  as 
it  is,  the  legend  indicates  some  interesting  points.  That  religious 
hatred  was  deeply  concerned  in  the  persecution,  may  be  inferred 
from  the  uniform  representation  of  the  people  as  a  mixed  collection 
of  polluted  outcasts ;  and  the  special  mention  of  lepers  among 
them  cannot  but  recall  the  sign  of  the  leprous  hand,  one  of  the 
first  by  which  the  mission  of  Moses  was  attested.  The  employ- 
ment of  the  leprous  persons  in  the  quarries,  their  choice  of  Moses 
for  their  leader  and  acceptance  of  new  laws  at  his  hands,  and  the 
failure  of  the  Egyptians  to  prevent  their  departure,  are  so  many 
dim  reflections  of  the  truth ;  and  the  great  pestilence,  which  is  said 
to  have  warned  the  Egyptians  to  expel  them,  may  be  connected 
with  the  plagues  of  Egypt,  and  especially  with  the  slaughter  of 
the  firstborn.  The  mention  of  Jerusalem,  though  an  anachronism 
which  betrays  the  utter  absence  of  historical  accuracy,  clearly 
shows  to  what  nation  the  story  was  meant  to  apply.  But  the  most 
curious  points  in  the  various  forms  of  the  legend  are  those  which 
relate  to  Moses  and  his  legislation.  The  character  ascribed  to 
him,  of  an  apostate  Egyptian  priest,  confirms  the  fact  that  he 
was  learned  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians,  and  various 

opiuions  of  the  chronologers  in  whose  copies  alone  the  lists  have  come  down  to  us. 
Thus  Africanus  names  Amosis,  the  first  king  of  the  Eighteenth  Dynasty  (about  B.C. 
1525),  as  the  Pharaoh  under  whom  Moses  left  Egypt,  which  would  agree  with  the  date 
assigned  to  the  exodus  by  Petavius,  and  come  very  near  to  that  of  Ussher.  This  may, 
however,  refer  to  the  flight  into  Midian,  rather  than  to  the  exodus.  Both  the  Greek 
and  Armenian  copies  of  Eusebius  place  the  exodus  under  the  ninth  king  of  the  Eigh- 
teenth Dynasty,  namely  Achencheres,  who  is  either  the  son  of,  or  the  same  as,  Horus, 
the  son  of  Amenophis  III.  Nay,  in  the  very  legend  on  which  the  German  writers  rely, 
the,  name  given  is  Menophis,  or  Amenophis,  though  the  context  leaves  little  doubt  that 
Men-ptah  the  son  of  Rameses  II.,  is  the  king  intended. 


154  THE  HEBREW  THEOCRACY.  [Chap.  VHL 

forms  of  the  tradition  attest  that  he  was  "  mighty  in  word  and 
deed." 

Thus  Ilecatseus  of  Abdera,  who  visited  Egypt  under  Ptolemy  I. 
and  wrote  an  Egyptian  history,  mentions  Moses  as  the  most  dis- 
tinguished of  the  Jews,  both  in  knowledge  and  bravery.  The 
story  of  this  writer,  as  preserved  by  Diodorus,  is,  that  the  woi^sliip 
of  the  gods  having  been  neglected  on  account  of  the  number  of 
foreigners  in  Egypt,  the  Egyptians  were  warned  by  a  pestilence  to 
drive  away  the  pollution.  The  most  distinguished  of  the  expelled 
foreigners  followed  Daaaus  and  Cadmus  into  Greece;  but  the 
greater  number  were  led  by  Moses  into  Judaea,  which  was  then 
uninhabited.  There  he  built  Jerusalem  and  many  other  cities, 
divided  the  people  into  twelve  tribes,  appointed  judges  and  priests, 
and  erected  a  sanctuary,  which  contained  no  images  of  the  gods ; 
for  Moses  held  that  the  Deity  could  not  be  fitly  represented  by  any 
human  form,  being  in  truth  nothing  else  than  the  heaven  which 
surrounds  and  embraces  the  world.  Having  trained  the  people  by 
warlike  institutions,  Moses  conquered  the  surrounding  nations  and 
divided  their  lands  among  the  Jews.  He  forbad  foreign  commerce, 
made  education  obligatory,  and  enacted  laws  for  marriage  and 
burial.*  Such  is  the  interesting  though  confused  account  given 
by  an  intelligent  and  apparently  impartial  Greek,  who  had  access 
in  Egypt  to  Jewish  as  well  as  Egyptian  sources  of  information. 

Diodorus,  who  has  preserved  this  story,  gives  another  version  of 
it,  according  to  which,  when  the  temple  was  profaned  by  Antiochus 
Epiphanes,  the  picture  of  Moses  was  found  in  the  Holy  of  Holies, 
as  a  man  with  a  long  beard,  and  with  a  book  in  his  hand,  mounted 
on  an  ass ;  and  the  legend  stated  that  the  Israelites  in  the  wilder- 
ness were  guided  by  an  ass  to  a  spring  of  water.  The  ass  was  the 
Eg}^tiau  symbol  for  the  evil  principle,  Typhon,  who  was  regarded 
as  the  god  of  the  Hyksos,  and  of  the  kindred  Syrian  and  Arabian 
tribes. 

The  great  geographer  Strabo,  in  the  time  of  Julius  Csesar  and 
Augustus,  relates  the  story  in  a  much  more  impartial  spirit,  recog- 
nizing in  Moses  a  great  reformer  of  religion,  and  in  his  followers 
those  who  honoured  the  unity  of  the  Godliead.  He  falls,  however, 
into  the  common  error  of  regarding  the  Jews  as  a  colony  of  the 
Eg3^tians,  mingled  with  Syrians  and  Phoenicians,  a  tradition  which 
of  itself  bears  witness  to  the  exodus. 

Tacitus  has  collected  the  accounts  of  various  authors  into  a 
strange  medley  of  the  traditions  respecting  the  Shepherd  Kings,  the 

*  Diod.  i.  27,  46,  55. 


B.C.  1491.]  THE  MARCH  TO   SINAI.  155 

exodus  itself,  and  the  story  of  Manetho ;  and,  like  most  of  tlie 
preceding  writers,  lie  views  the  Mosaic  legislation  as  conceived  in 
a  spirit  of  hostility  to  mankind;*  This  misrepresentation,  spring- 
ing at  first  from  envy  at  the  privileges  of  the  chosen  people  and 
dislike  to  their  purer  morality,  was  partly  justified  by  their  own 
arrogant  exclusiverifess. 

It  was  long,  however,  before  they  thus  abused  their  sense  of 
privilege.     The  night  of  the  exodus  saw  them 

"  Red  from  the  scourge,  and  recent  from  the  chain  ;  " 

though,  in  the  first  ardour  of  their  new-found  liberty,  "  there  was 
not  one  feeble  person  among  their  tribes."  We  must  leave  to  the 
special  department  of  Scriptural  History  the  very  interesting  ques- 
tions of  the  route  they  followed  in  their  three  days'  march  to  the 
Ked  Sea,  the  point  at  which  they  crossed  the  Gulf  of  Suez,  and 
the  vindication  of  the  miracle  of  their  passage  and  the  destruction 
of  the  Egyptians.  On  the  whole,  it  seems  most  probable  that, 
starting  from  Rameses,  not  far  north-east  of  Heliopolis,  they 
marched  along  the  line  of  the  ancient  canal,  through  the  Wady- 
Tumeilat^  and  not  through  the  more  southern  Wady-et-Teeh  ( Valley 
of  the  Pilgrimage)^  which  leads  almost  due  east  from  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Cairo  to  the  Gulf  of  Suez.  Their  march  was  at  first  so 
directed  that  it  might  have  brought  them  to  the  southern  fi'ontier 
of  Palestine ;  but  Moses  was  commanded  not  to  lead  them  at  once 
to  a  conflict  with  its  warlike  inhabitants ;  and  a  sudden  turn  to 
the  south  brought  them  into  that  trap,  as  it  seemed  to  the  pur- 
suing Egyptians,  whence  they  were  delivered  by  the  miracle  to 
which  they  always  looked  back  as  the  great  epoch  of  their  history ; 
— the  great  proof  that  theirs  was  the  true  God.f 

Neither  does  it  fall  within  our  plan  to  trace  the  details  of  their 
march  to  Mount  Sinai,  or  to  discuss  the  topography  of  that  sacred 
spot.  Their  three  months'  progress  through  the  wilderness  showed 
how  entirely  God  had  taken  them  into  his  own  hands,  and  how 
perversely  they  opposed  their  will  to  His  from  the  very  moment  of 
their  rescue ; — a  type  of  our  race  in  its  pilgrimage  through  the 
world, — a  proof  of  the  need  for  that  law  which  they  were  called  to 
receive,  first  from  God  himself,  and  then  through  Moses  as  the 
mediator.  The  spot  chosen  for  the  revelation,  besides  being  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  in  the  world  for  its  awful  solitary  grandeur, 

*  Tacit.  Hut.  V.  2—5. 

\  The  route  through  the  "Wady-et-Teeh,  besides  exaggerating  the  difficulty  of  the 
passage  of  the  Red  Sea,  altogether  fails  to  account  for  the  movement  of  turning  to  en- 
camp beside  the  sea.     Exodus  xiv.  2. 


156  THE   HEBREW  THEOCRACY.  [Chap.  VIH 

seems  to  have  been  an  ancient  sanctuary  of  the  Arab  tribes,  wlio 
liad  still  worshipped  there  the  God  of  their  father  Abraham,  "We 
leave  to  the  words  of  Scripture  itself  the  relation  of  God's  descent 
upon  the  mount,  a  scene  which  struck  Moses  himself  with  terror. 
The  full  exposition  of  the  law  does  not  of  course  belong  to 
general  history;  but  yet  it  forms,  in  its  leading  principles,  a 
standard  by  which  to  estimate  the  character  and  the  true  progress 
of  the  whole  race.  It  was  given  to  one  nation,  not  as  adapted  to 
them  alone,  but  because  mankind  at  large  had  become  unworthy  to 
receive  it ;  and  it  was  given  to  them  in  trust  for  all  the  rest.  Its 
foundation  was  in  the  truth  of  God's  self-existence  as  the  One 
God,  in  His  almighty  power  as  the  creator  of  the  world,  in  His 
supreme  authority  over  His  creatures,  and  His  paternal  relation  to 
mankind.  In  applying  these  general  principles  to  the  chosen 
people,  Jehovah  revealed  himself  as  their  only  king,  and  raised 
them  to  the  privileges  of  "  a  holy  nation,  a  royal  priesthood." 
While  therefore  it  was  treason  in  them  to  serve  other  gods,  it  was 
no  less  than  usurpation  against  God  for  other  nations  and  kings  to 
claim  authority  over  them.  The  leading  commands  and  prohibi- 
tions reduced  to  a  definite  system  of  law  those  moral  principles  by 
which  the  lives  of  the  patriarchs  had  been  already  governed,  their 
great  rule  of  life  being  found  in  the  will  of  God.  Those  minuter 
regulations  which  were  clearly  not  intended  to  be  universal,*  were 
designed  in  part  to  secure  the  purity  of  the  people,  in  part  to  pre- 
serve and  set  forth,  in  the  lasting  and  vivid  form  of  institutions 
and  symbols,  those  great  religious  truths  which  were  at  last  to 
regenerate  the  world : — these  were  "  the  end  of  the  law."  The 
same  symbolism  ran  through  the  divine  worship,  which  was  estab- 
lished in  a  form  that  appealed  to  the  senses,  and  which  was 
connected  with  the  whole  social  organization.  The  Sanctuary,  at 
first  a  moveable  tent  or  "  Tabernacle,"  the  model  of  the  later 
Temple,  was  the  visible  abode  of  the  invisible  God,  who  indicated 
his  presence  by  the  Shechinah,  or  cloud  of  glory ;  and,  in  place  of 
the  image  of  the  deity,  which  was  enshrined  in  heathen  temples, 
the  Book  of  the  Law  itself  was  deposited  in  the  sacred  ark,  under 
the  custody  of  the  Priests,  the  descendants  of  Aaron,  under  whom 
the  Levites  acted  as  sacrificing  priests,  teachers,  lawyers,  and 
physicians.  The  holy  festivals  were  to  the  people  a  constant  bond 
of  union  with  one  another  and  with  God ;  while  the  sacred  and 
merciful  institution  of  the  Sabbath  was  extended,  in  the  Sabbatic 

*  Of  course  we  cannot  attempt  here  to  draw  the  line,  the  existence  of  which  we 

recognise. 


B.C.  1491.]  THE  MOSAIC  INSTITUTIONS.  157 

Year  and  Jubilee,  in  sucli  a  manner  as  to  correct  the  inequalities 
of  society,  and  to  check  the  selfishness  which  makes  such  inequali- 
ties excessive.  Every  Israelite  was  holy  to  God,  and  equal  in  civil 
rights,  and  therefore  none  might  be  reduced  to  slavery  :  *  the  land 
was  God's  own  possession,  the  use  of  which  only  was  granted  to 
the  several  tribes  and  families  by  lot,  and  it  could  not  be  perma- 
nently alienated.  Hence  the  institution  of  the  Jubilee  in  every 
fiftieth  year,  when  bondsmen  were  set  free,  debts  remitted,  and 
property  that  had  been  sold  restored  to  its  former  possessors.  In 
the  Sabbatic  year,  the  spontaneous  produce  of  the  land,  abundant 
in  Palestine,  was  freely  enjoyed  by  the  poor.  The  civil  govern- 
ment was  administered  by  the  Elders  of  the  tribes,  and  by  a  new 
class  of  judges,  in  the  name  of  Jehovah,  who  was  himself  the  sole 
King,  ever  present  in  the  camp,  and  deciding  all  doubtful  cases  by 
oracles  given  through  the  High  Priest.  The  principles  of  the 
patriarchal  constitution  were  still  preserved  in  the  power  of  the 
princes  and  elders  of  the  tribes,  who,  besides  having  the  inter- 
nal government  of  their  own  tribes,  seem  to  have  formed  the  Coun- 
cil of  Seventy  to  consult  with  Moses  and  Aaron.  As  at  the  head 
of  the  state  the  will  of  God  was  supreme,  so  at  the  other  extremi- 
ty the  consent  of  the  people  was  signified  by  the  voice  of  the 
assembled  congregation.  The  bonds  of  national  life  were  the 
descent  from  a  common  ancestor  and  the  covenant  with  God. 
Provision  was  made  for  the  reception  of  strangers  into  the  com- 
monwealth, under  certain  restrictions  ;  but  all  must  observe  the 
most  essential  laws.  The  people  dwelt  around  the  tabernacle,  as 
a  military  liost,  arrayed  under  the  banners  of  the  several  tribes, 
and  ready  to  march  in  a  prescribed  order,  to  take  possession  of 
the  land  that  had  been  promised  to  their  fathers.  The  promise 
of  long  life  in  that  land,  and  the  threat  of  expatriation  and  cap- 
tivity, were  the  great  sanctions  of  the  law :  the  chief  summary 
penalty  for  disobedience  was  the  being  "  cut  off"  from  the  congre- 
gation "  as  a  corrupted  member.f 

It  was  on  the  20th  day  of  the  second  month  of  the  second  year 
from  the  epoch  of  the  exodus  (early  in  May  b.c.  1490),:}:  when,  all 
these  institutions  having  been  arranged,  and  the  Tabernacle  hav- 

*  Only  foreigners,  purchased  or  taken  in  war,  could  be  made  slaves,  and  laws  were 
enacted  for  their  merciful  treatment. 

f  In  this  brief  summary,  all  minute  points  and  doubtful  discussions  are  avoided ;  for 
instance,  the  question  how  far  the  external  forms  of  the  Mosaic  institutions  were  imitated 
from  Egyptian  models. 

X  That  is,  from  the  first  day  of  the  month  Abib,  on  the  fifteenth  day  of  which  the 
exodus  took  place. 


158  THE  HEBREW  THEOCRACY.  [Chap.  VHI. 

iiig  been  erected  on  the  first  day  of  the  same  year,  the  encamp- 
ment before  Sinai  was  broken  up.  The  interval  of  a  year  had 
l)een  enough  to  show  how  deeply  the  people  were  corrupted  by 
the  idolatry  of  Egyj)t ;  and  now  their  conduct  proved  that  those 
who  had  a  perfect  law  were  still  the  true  types  of  an  imperfect 
humanity. 

Their  exact  route  through  the  peninsula  of  Sinai  is  undeter- 
mined ;  nor  can  we  be  sure  of  the  position  of  Kadesh,  the  place 
near  the  southern  frontier  of  Palestine,  at  Avhich  they  rebelled  on 
hearing  the  report  of  the  spies,  and  from  whence  they  were  turned 
back  to  complete  the  full  term  of  forty  years'  wandering  in  the 
wilderness.  The  Forty  Years'  Wandering  was  no  mere  term  of 
penal  suffering,  but  a  period  of  most  needful  discipline,  religious 
and  moral,  military  and  political,  interposed  between  the  slavery 
of  Egypt  and  the  free  national  life  of  Palestine.  Nor  can  we  suffi- 
ciently admire  the  providence  which  furnished  such  a  scene  for 
this  stage  in  their  training  as  the  secluded  peninsula  of  Sinai, 
where  the  Israelites  met  with  none  but  a  few  wandering  Arab 
tribes — such  as  the  hostile  Amalekites  and  the  friendly  Midianites, 
— of  their  relations  to  whom  the  narrative  is  almost  silent.*  We 
should  miss  one  of  the  most  salient  features  in  the  history  of  the 
world,  did  we  not  recognise,  in  this  stage  of  the  annals  of  the 
chosen  people,  a  type  of  the  progress  both  of  the  individual  man 
and  of  the  whole  race,  from  the  bondage  and  impotence  of  our 
fallen  state,  through  the  discipline  of  suflfering  and  by  the  "  law 
of  liberty,"  to  the  inheritance  of  our  final  rest. 

Towards  the  expiration  of  the  forty  years,  we  find  them  in  the 
Arahah^  the  broad  valley  which  runs  northward  from  the  eastern 
gulf  of  the  Eed  Sea,  along  the  foot  of  Mount  Seir,  and  gives  entrance 
to  Palestine  by  the  valley  of  the  Dead  Sea.  Turned  back  thence 
by  the  jealousy  of  the  kindred  race  of  Edom,  they  marched  round 
Mount  Seir  into  the  hilly  country  east  of  Jordan,  afterwards  called 
Per?ea.  This  country  was  then  occupied,  after  various  changes 
of  inhabitants,  by  two  branches  of  the  great  tribe  of  the  Amorites, 
whose  chief  seats,  as  we  have  already  seen,  at  the  time  of  Abra- 
ham and  Jacob,  were  in  the  central  highlands  of  Palestine.  The 
southern  part  formed  the  kingdom  of  Sihon,  and  the  northern, 
under  the  name  of  Bashan,  the  still  more  powerful  kingdom  of  the 
giant  Og.  Both  made  war  against  the  Israelites,  to  whom  their 
overthrow  gave  possession  of  the  whole  land  from  the  foot  of 
Mount  Hermon  and  the  chain  of  Anti-libanus  to  the  river  Arnon, 

*  See  Exodus  xvii. ;  Deuteronomy  xxv.  17  ;  Exodus  xviii. ;  Numbers  x. 


B.C.  1451.]  ENTRANCE  INTO   CANAAN.  159 

wliicli  runs  into  the  Dead  Sea.  The  hills  south  of  this  stream 
were  held  by  the  pastoral  race  of  Moab,  one  of  the  two  sons  of 
Lot,  round  whose  land  the  Israelites  had  marched  in  peace  ;  and 
beyond  them,  towards  the  Great  Desert,  were  the  Beni-Amnii, 
the  children  of  Lot's  other  son,  Amnion.  Both  nations  had  been 
lately  driven  out  by  the  Amorites  from  the  land  now  conquered 
by  Israel.  They  formed  a  confederacy  with  the  Midianites  against 
the  invaders  ;  and  Balak,  king  of  Moab,  sought  for  a  Divine  sanc- 
tion to  the  enterprise.  Far  to  the  East,  at  Pethor,  in  Mesopo- 
tamia, dwelt  a  famous  prophet,  Balaam  the  son  of  Beor,  who  had 
preserved  the  knowledge  of  the  true  God,  and  received  oracles 
from  Him,  though  practising  at  the  same  time  the  arts  of  magic, 
and  "  loving  the  wages  of  iniquity  ; "  a  type  chosen  by  two  sacred 
writers  to  describe  the  apostates  of  the  last  days.  Few  episodes 
of  Scripture  history  are  more  picturesque,  and  none  more  morally 
significant,  than  that  of  the  apostate  prophet  struggling  with  God 
and  his  own  conscience  to  earn  the  gifts  of  Balak,  and  thrice 
compelled  to  bless  the  people  whom  he  had  come  to  curse.  He 
revenged  his  disappointment  by  seducing  them  to  practise  the 
licentious  rites  of  Baal-peor,  but  perished  in  the  vengeance  which 
Moses  was  commanded  to  take  upon  the  Moabites. 

During  these  events,  Israel  was  encamped  in  the  "  plains  of 
Moab,". — the  terraces  which  descend  from  the  hills  to  the  deep 
valley  of  the  Jordan,  opposite  to  Jericho.  Here  Moses  delivered 
to  them  those  parting  discourses  which  occupy  the  Book  of  Deute- 
ronomy ;  and,  having  appointed  Joshua  as  his  successor,  yielded 
up  his  life  on  the  top  of  Mount  Pisgah,  after  beholding  the  pros- 
pect of  the  land  which  he  was  not  suffered  to  enter  (b.c.  1451). 
With  him  ended  the  generation  who  had  come  up  out  of  Egypt. 

The  only  survivors  of  that  generation,  preserved  as  a  special 
reward  of  their  fidelity  in  bringing  a  good  report  of  the  land,  were 
Caleb  and  Joshua.  Under  the  command  of  the  latter,  a  new  and 
vigorous  race  trained  by  the  long  experience  of  the  Desert,  advanced 
to  the  conquest  of  their  promised  inheritance.  "We  need  but  glance 
at  the  miraculous  passage  of  the  Jordan  and  fall  of  Jericho,  the 
repulse  from  Ai  for  Achan's  sin,  and  the  subsequent  capture  of 
that  city,  followed  by  the  great  defeat  of  the  confederated  kings  of 
Southern  Palestine  in  the  pass  of  Beth-horon,  when  the  sun  and 
moon  stood  still  at  the  command  of  Joshua,  that  the  slaughter  of 
the  enemy  might  be  complete.  The  campaign  was  finished  by  the 
capture  and  destruction  of  all  the  chief  cities  of  the  soutli,  except 
Jerusalem.     In  the  following  year  (b.c.  1450),  a  league  of  the 


IGO  THE   HEBREW  THEOCRACY.  [Chap.  VIH. 

nortliern  kings,  wlio  brought  into  the  field  a  great  force  of  war 
chariots,  was  as  signally  overthrown  at  the  "  Waters  of  Merom," 
the  small  lake  formed  by  the  Upper  Jordan.  These  two  great 
victories  decided  the  fate  of  the  country  ;  but  its  entire  conquest 
occupied  seven  years  ;  and  even  then  there  remained  great  cities 
and  whole  districts  unsubdued  (b.c.  1445).*  This  was  natural 
in  so  rapid  a  conquest ;  and  the  resulting  state  of  things  was  a 
divinely  appointed  trial  of  the  people's  steadfastness  to  their  faith. 
And  the  very  reason  why  some  of  the  conquered  tribes  were  per- 
mitted to  remain  suggests  one  answer  to  the  moral  difficulty  raised 
by  their  general  extermination.  Races  so  depraved,  that  their 
very  neighbourhood  was  a  constant  source  of  corruption,  were 
clearly  past  any  milder  treatment.  Nor  can  the  historian,  unless 
he  be  an  unbeliever,  record  their  destruction  without  a  distinct 
recoornition  of  the  fact,  that  it  was  done  at  the  command  of  God. 
The  razed  cities  and  slaughtered  inhabitants  were  not  the  victims 
of  military  licence,  but  were  solemnly  devoted  to  Jehovah.  The 
full  rigour  of  the  sentence  seems  to  have  been  executed  only  in  a 
few  conspicuous  examples,  as  those  of  Jericho  and  Ai.  The  cities 
were  generally  left  in  a  habitable  state  when  their  defences  were 
razed,  and  many  of  their  inhabitants  may  have  been  spared.  One 
people  only,  through  a  curious  stratagem,  obtained  a  treaty  of 
peace  ;  and  these  Gibeonites  were  reduced  to  perpetual  servitude 
in  the  menial  oflices  of  the  sanctuary. f 

Meanwhile  Israel  had  kept  up  the  military  organization  of 
invaders  in  an  enemy's  country,  their  head-quarters  being  their 
original  camp  at  Gilgal  near  Jericho.  But  now  the  Tabernacle 
was  removed  to  Shiloh,  in  the  central  hill-country  between  Jordan 
and  the  Mediterranean,  which  was  assigned  to  Ephraim,  the  tribe 
of  Joshua  himself.  Seated  in  front  of  the  sanctuary,  with  the 
High  Priest  Eleazar  and  the  seventy  elders,  Joshua  divided  the 
land  among  the  twelve  tribes  by  lot,  a  foim  of  decision  which  the 
Jews  regarded  as  expressing  the  Divine  Mnll.  The  two  tribes  of 
Ileubcu  and  Gad,  and  half  the  tribe  of  Manasseh,  had  already 
received  their  inheritance  from  Moses  in  the  conquered  land  on  the 
east  of  the  Jordan,  which  was  specially  adapted  for  their  numerous 
flocks ;  and  their  armed  men,  having  fulfilled  the  condition  of 
marching  before  their  brethren  till  the  conquest  was  achieved, 
were  now  dismissed  in  peace.  A  misunderstanding  with  reference 
to  an  altar  erected  by  them  on  the  banks  of  Jordan,  as  a  memorial 
of  their  claim  to  a  common  share  in  the  privileges  of  Israel,  called 

*  For  a  list  of  these,  see  Joshua  xiii.  •{•  Joshua  ix. 


B.C.  1445.]  DIVISION  OF  THE   LAND.  161 

forth  a  display  of  zeal  wliicli  proved  how  steadfast  all  the  people 
were  as  yet  to  their  faith  ;  and  the  affair  bound  more  closely  to- 
gether the  tribes  divided  by  the  stream  of  Jordan.  It  was  from 
that  eastern  division,  and  especially  from  the  rough  highlands  of 
Gilead,  that  some  of  Israel's  greatest  heroes  sprang.  Such  were 
the  judge  Jephthah  and  the  proj^het  Elijah. 

There  remained  nine  tribes  and  a  half  on  the  west  of  the  Jordan, 
Levi,  being  devoted  to  the  priesthood,  received  no  separate  in- 
heritance, and  was  not  reckoned  among  the  twelve  ;  *  but  the 
number  was  made  up  by  the  division  of  Joseph  into  the  two  tribes 
of  Ephraim  and  Manasseh,  These  two  obtained  the  central  dis- 
trict, composed  of  fertile  hills  and  rich  valleys  ;  and  far  exceeding 
the  lot  of  any  other  tribe,  except  Judah,  which  received  the  rough 
hill-country  of  the  south.  The  future  capital,  Jerusalem,  as  yet 
in  the  hands  of  the  Jebusites,  lay  on  the  northern  border  of  Judah, 
but  strictly  within  the  territory  of  Benjamin,  The  latter  tribe 
held  a  narrow  strip  of  land  between  the  hills  of  Ephraim  and 
those  of  Judah,  containing  the  most  important  passes  from  the  val- 
ley of  the  Jordan  to  the  great  Philistine  plain.  It  is  unnecessary 
to  describe  the  lots  of  the  other  tribes,  which  corresponded  very 
strikingly  to  the  prophetic  blessing  of  Jacob  ;  f  and  the  geography 
of  Palestine  may  be  assumed  to  be  familiar  to  our  readers.  The 
division  included  the  land  that  still  remained  to  be  conquered ; 
and  some  of  the  tribes  in  fact  never  obtained  all  their  allotted 
possessions,  such  as  Dan  and  Simeon  in  the  maritime  plain  of 
Philistia,  and  Asher  in  the  borders  of  Sidon.  The  old  inhabit- 
ants held  most  tenaciously  to  the  lowlands,  where  their  military 
force,  and  particularly  in  the  north  their  war-chariots,  could  act 
best ;  and  there  were  times  in  the  dark  period  following  the 
death  of  Joshua  when  the  Israelites  were  almost  entirely  driven 
back  into  the  hills. 

But  the  declension  which  brought  upon  them  such  weakness 
had  not  yet  begun.  In  the  pregnant  simplicity  of  the  sacred  nar- 
rative we  are  told  that  "  Jehovah  gave  unto  Israel  all  the  land 
which  He  sware  to  give  unto  their  fathers  ;  and  they  possessed  it, 
and  dwelt  therein.  And  Jehovah  gave  them  rest  round  about, 
according  to  all  that  He  sware  unto  their  fathers  :  and  there  stood 
not  a  man  of  all  their  enemies  before  them  ;  Jehovah  delivered  all 

*  The  Lcvites  possessed  forty-eight  cities  with  their  suburbs,  six  of  which  were  made 
"  cities  of  refuge  "  for  involuntary  homicides.  For  their  maintenance  they  had  the  tithes 
of  all  produce,  and  portions  of  the  sacrifices. 

f  Genesis  xlix. 

VOL.  I. — 11 


162  THE  HEBREW  THEOCRACY.  [Chap.  Vm. 

their  enemies  into  their  hand.  There  failed  not  aught  of  any- 
good  thing  which  Jehovah  liad  spoken  unto  tlie  house  of  Israel ; 
all  came  to  pass."  *  If  this  language  seem  too  strong  for  the 
real  facts,  it  should  be  remembered  that  it  describes  privileges  put 
within  their  power,  and  only  not  actually  enjoyed  by  their  own 
fault ;  and  that  the  possessions  of  the  nation  did  reach,  under 
David  and  Solomon,  to  the  full  bounds  of  the  promised  land, 
from  the  borders  of  Egypt  to  the  Euphrates. 

Unlike  other  nations,  who  have  had  to  build  up  the  edifice 
of  material  prosperity  by  slow  and  painful  eiforts,  the  Israelites 
entered  into  the  fniits  of  a  civilization  long  established,  in  a 
country  highly  favoured  by  climate,  products,  and  position.  An- 
cient Palestine  f  is  not  fairly  described  by  the  sarcasms  of  Gib- 
bon. The  rugged  portions  of  its  surface,  like  the  more  rugged 
banks  of  the  Rhine,  were  converted,  by  a  system  of  terrace  culti- 
vation, into  luxuriant  vineyards.  Olives  and  other  fruit-trees 
abounded ;  the  valleys  produced  rich  crops  of  corn  ;  the  hills 
furnished  ample  pasturage,  and  the  woods  harboured  such  swarms 
of  wild  bees  that  the  honey  was  often  dropping  from  the  trees.:}: 
The  "  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey  "  is  no  poetic  fiction,  but 
an  accurate  description  of  a  country  abounding  in  the  first  neces- 
saries of  life — for  such  is  honey  in  the  absence  of  the  sugarcane. 
The  finest  timber  was  obtained  from  the  forests  of  Gilead  and 
Bashan,  and  from  the  cedar  groves  of  Lebanon,  whose  two  giant 
chains  crowned  the  whole  land  upon  the  north.  The  happy  po- 
sition of  Palestine  has  often  been  noticed,  in  the  very  centre  of 
the  ancient  world,  and  at  the  confluence  of  the  great  routes  of 
traflfic,  both  by  land  and  sea  ;  and  at  the  height  of  her  prosperity, 
under  Solomon,  she  had  ports  both  on  the  Red  Sea  and  tlie  Medi- 
terranean. At  the  time  of  the  conquest  Canaan  teemed  with  a 
population  who  had  made  full  use  of  these  natural  advantages. 
The  whole  face  of  the  country  was  covered  with  strong  cities,  each 
under  its  king  ;  the  fruits  brought  in  by  the  spies  bear  witness  to 

*  Joshua  xxi.  43 — 45. 

f  Wc  use  the  name  which  has  been  adopted  in  geography  from  the  Greek  writers  ; 
though  none  could  well  be  less  appropriate.  Describing  properly  the  country  of  the 
Philistines,  the  most  constant  enemies  of  the  Hebrews,  it  was  extended  to  the  land  of 
the  latter  in  the  full  form  of  Syria- Palffistina,  or  more  briefly  Paltestina.  In  our  version 
the  word  is  twice  used,  in  the  narrower  sense  only  :  Exodus  xv.  15  ;  Isaiah  xiv.  29,  31. 
The  Biblical  name  of  the  country  is  Canaan,  in  the  early  period ;  and  afterwards  the 
separate  parts  arc  described  by  the  names  of  the  tribes,  and  by  local  designations,  .such 
as  Gilead,  Bashan,  &c.  When  the  land  was  divided  into  the  two  kingdoms,  they  were 
called  by  the  names  of  Judah  and  Israel. 

^  1  Samuel  xiv.  26. 


B.C.  1420.]        DEATHS   OF   JOSHUA  AND  ELEAZAR.  163 

the  richness  even  of  its  least  fertile  parts  ;  and  tlie  goodly  Baby- 
lonish garment,  and  other  treasures  found  among  the  spoils  of 
Jericho,  indicate  an  active  commerce  with  the  East.  Thus  did 
the  Israelites  find  themselves  the  masters  of  "  great  and  goodly 
cities,  which  they  builded  not,  and  houses  full  of  all  good  things, 
which  they  filled  not,  and  wells  digged,  which  they  digged  not, 
vineyards  and  olive-trees,  which  they  planted  not : " — * 

"  It  was  a  fearful  joy,  I  ween, 
To  trace  the  Heathens'  toil, 
The  limpid  wells,  the  orchards  green, 
Left  ready  for  the  spoil. 
The  household  stores  untouch'd,  the  roses  bright 
Wreath'd  o'er  the  cottage  walls  in  garlands  of  delight."f 

Before  the  first  tide  of  gratitude  had  had  time  to  ebb,  their 
aged  leader  twice  convened  the  people  to  receive  a  final  charge 
and  warning.  The  second  of  these  assemblies  was  held  at  She- 
chem,  the  old  abode  of  Abraham  and  Jacob,  and  henceforth  the 
chief  city,  till  it  was  eclipsed  by  Jerusalem.  Here  the  bones  of 
Joseph,  which  had  been  brought  out  of  Egypt  at  the  Exodus, 
were  committed  to  his  fathers'  burial-place.  The  covenant  was 
solemnly  renewed,  and  a  stone  of  memorial  was  set  up  under  an 
oak,  perhaps  in  the  very  grove  where  Abraham  had  pitched  his 
tent  five  hundred  years  before.  One  passage  in  Joshua's  last  ad- 
dress would  seem  to  show  that  the  idols  of  the  Canaanites  had 
already  found  worshippers  among  the  people  ;  j(.  and  his  parting 
warnings  are  uttered  in  the  same  sadly  prophetic  spirit  as  those 
of  Moses.  Joshua  died  about  b.c.  1426.  The  people  remained 
faithful  to  Jehovah  during  the  days  of  the  elders  who  outlived 
him.  He  was  not  long  survived  by  the  high  priest  Eleazar,  the 
son  of  Aaron,  the  epoch  of  whose  death  closes  the  first  period  of 
Israel's  history  as  a  nation  (about  b.c.  1420). 

The  time  of  the  Judges,  from  the  death  of  Joshua  to  the  elec- 
tion of  Saul, — a  period  of  about  330  years, — fitly  represents,  by  the 
intricacy  of  its  history,  the  confusion  of  the  commonwealtli.§  It 
is  not,  however,  difficult  to  apprehend  those  leading  points  which 
alone  belong  to  general  history.  Much  light  is  thrown  on  the  be- 
ginning of  the  period  by  the  later  chapters  of  the  Book  of  Judges, 
which  are  properly  supplemental  to  the  general  mention  of  the 

*  Deuteronomy  vi.  10,  11.         f  Keble :   Christian  Year.         \  Joshua  xxiv.  23. 

§  B.C.  1427 — 1095.  This  is  according  to  Ussher;  but  most  modern  chronologera 
adopt  a  much  longer  period.  See  the  Ifote  on  Scripture  Chronology,  at  the  end  of  the 
Introduction. 


164  THE  HEBREW  THEOCRACY.  [Chap.  VHI. 

people's  declension  at  tlie  beginning  of  the  book.*  Here  we  see 
great  questions  of  public  policy  decided  by  the  whole  people  as- 
sembled at  the  Sanctuary,  and  learning  the  will  of  God  from  the 
hio-h  priest.  The  Theocracy  was  in  full  force,  administered  by  the 
hi"-h  priest  and  the  council  of  elders,  in  the  spirit  of  such  uncom- 
promising zeal  against  a  gross  outrage,  that  the  tribe  of  Benjamin 
was  almost  exterminated  by  the  rest.  \Vc  see  too,  in  the  companion 
story  of  Micah  and  the  Danites,  the  beginnings  of  idolatry  and 
brigandage.  Meanwhile,  noble  deeds  of  daring  were  performed  in 
driving  out  the  heathen  from  various  parts  of  the  land,  and  in  these 
the  family  of  Caleb  were  conspicuous.  But  religious  zeal  soon 
faded  before  the  seductions  of  idolatry,  and  the  people,  having  lost 
tlic  true  source  of  their  power,  easily  succumbed  to  the  tyrants 
whose  oppression  was  the  punishment  of  their  sin.  Among  the 
numerous  gods  of  the  heathen  whom  they  served,  the  chief  were 
Chemosh,  the  god  of  Moab,  and  Baal  and  Ashtaroth,  the  deities 
of  Phcenicia : 

"  For  those  the  race  of  Israel  oft  forsook 
Their  living  Strength,  and  unfrequented  left 
His  righteous  altar,  bowing  lowly  down 
To  bestial  gods  ;  for  which  their  heads  as  low 
Bowed  down  in  battle,  sunk  before  the  spear 
Of  despicable  foes."  — 

This  declension  was  aided  by  natural  causes,  so  powerful  that 
nothing  short  of  the  firmest  adherence  to  the  idea  of  religious  unity 
could  have  arrested  their  working  ;  and  that  bond  failed.  From 
the  moment  that  the  tribes  took  possession  of  their  several  lots, 
diiferent  in  their  physical  characters  and  in  their  relations  to  the 
old  inhabitants,  they  began  to  have  separate  interests  and  dangers. 
It  became  more  and  more  difficult  to  assemble  the  whole  congrega- 
tion before  the  Tabernacle  under  their  elders ;  in  fact,  the  only  such 
meeting  of  which  we  read  was  that  in  which  the  eleven  tribes 
leagued  together  for  the  punishment  of  Benjamin.  From  this 
meeting  at  Shiloh  under  Phinehas,  to  the  time  when  Samuel  called 
the  people  together  at  Ramah  and  at  Mizpeh,  the  national  life 
seems  to  have  fidlen  apart  into  that  of  the  separate  tribes.  The 
only  personal  centre  of  the  state,  the  high  priest,  was  so  insignificant 
that  none  is  mentioned  by  name  from  Phinehas  to  Eli  except  in 
the  genealogies.  Disorders  arose  within  the  tribes  themselves ;  and 

*  Compare  Judges  ii.  with  chapters  xvii — xxi.  Besides  the  indication  of  time 
given  by  the  mention  of  Phinehas,  the  son  of  Eleazar,  as  high  priest  (xx.  28),  the 
great  crime  of  Gibeah  is  mentioned  by  Hosea  (x.  9)  as  the  beginning  of  Israel's 
wickedness. 


B.C.  1430.]  ISRAEL  UNDER  THE  JUDGES.  165 

the  chiefs  of  volunteer  bands  (often  composed  of  outlaws  and  sub- 
sisting as  ffeebooters),  lilve  Jephthah,  usurped  the  authority  of  the 
elders,  and  succeeded  in  founding  new  houses  of  their  own.  These 
internal  dissensions  invited  attacks  from  the  prefatory  tribes  on  the 
southern  and  eastern  borders,  which  were  also  peculiarly  exposed 
through  the  want  of  any  natural  frontiers,  while  the  warlike  popula- 
tions of  the  great  maritime  plain  and  of  the  inland  valleys  formed 
an  ever-present  danger  in  the  heart  of  the  state.  The  compara- 
tive exemption  of  Judah  from  these  troubles  is  a  fact  that  deserves 
notice.  Strong  in  its  numbers  *  and  in  the  natural  defences  of  its 
hilbcountry,  the  tribe  appears  to  have  preserved  that  fidelity  to 
religious  patriotism,  of  wliich  so  bright  an  example  had  been  set 
by  Caleb  ;  and  it  is  to  the  fields  of  Bethlehem  that  we  must  look 
for  that  beautiful  picture  of  peaceful  patriarchal  life,  which  occu- 
pies the  second  supplement  to  the  Book  of  Judges.f  Kot  but  that 
this  tribe  had  its  conflicts.  The  presence  of  the  Arab  hordes  on 
the  south,  and  of  the  warlike  Philistines  on  the  west,  formed  a 
continual  danger,  and  may  account  for  the  unblamed  absence  of 
Judah  from  the  great  struggles  under  Deborah  and  Gideon. 

To  correct  these  internal  evils,  and  to  oppose  these  invasions 
from  without,  the  people  had  the  mercy  of  Jehovah,  renewed  as 
often  as  they  repented,  and  the  noble  daring  of  heroes  raised  up 
for  their  deliverance,  to  whom  impartial  history  will  not  assign 
a  lower  rank  than  it  gives  to  Leonidas  and  Tell.  Amidst  the  dis- 
union of  the  nation,  these  men,  and  sometimes  women,  led  one  or 
two  tribes  to  the  victory  which  was  granted  to  their  faith  ;  :j:  and 
their  deeds  form  the  only  history  of  Israel  for  about  three  cen- 
turies. 

The  great  oppressors  of  Israel  were  the  kings  of  Mesopotamia, 
of  Moab,  and  of  Hazor,  a  great  city  on  their  northern  frontier ; 
the  Midianites,  Amalekites,  Ammonites,  and  Philistines.§     Their 


*  After  the  Exodus,  Judah  was  by  far  the  most  numerous  tribe  (Numbers  i.).  At 
the  second  numbering  they  had  increased,  while  most  of  the  tribes  had  diminished, 
(Numbers  xxvi.) ;  and  the  disproportion  seems  to  have  gone  on  increasing. 

f  The  Book  of  Ruth.  The  first  supplement,  as  we  have  already  pointed  out,  con- 
sists of  Judges  xvii. — xxi.  The  date  of  Ruth  is  uncertain,  as  its  calculation  depends 
upon  the  genealogies,  in  which  some  steps  may  perhaps  be  wanting.  The  most  probable 
time  seems  to  be  about  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century  B.C.,  contemporary  with 
the  judgeship  of  Deborah  and  Barak  in  the  north. 

X  See  Hebrews  xi.  32—34. 

§  We  hear  of  no  hostilities  with  the  Phoenicians,  with  whom  the  neighbouring  tribes 
of  Israel  seem  thus  early  to  have  formed  the  peaceful  relations  which  were  continued 
under  David  and  Solomon, 


166  THE   HEBREW  THEOCRACY.  [Chap.  YIH. 

great  heroes  were  Otlniiel,  tlie  son  of  Caleb,  Ehud,  Dehorah  and 
Barak,  Gideon,  Je}>hthah,  and  Samson.  These,  besides  deliver- 
ing them  in  war,  administered  justice  with  a  special  authority, 
which  was  greatly  needed  amidst  the  confusion  of  ordinary  govern- 
ment ;  and  hence  they  received  the  name  of  Judges.  Their  office 
formed  a  sort  of  transition  from  the  pure  theocracy,  on  which  the 
people  had  lost  their  hold,  tu  a  regular  monarchy  :  it  was  designed 
to  correct  that  state  of  things,  in  which  "  there  was  no  king  in 
Israel,  but  every  man  did  that  which  was  right  in  his  own  eyes."  * 
It  is  a  great  en-or  to  suppose  that  their  authority  was  universal, 
any  more  than  the  oi»pressions  wliich  they  overthrew.  Thus  the 
servitude  of  the  Moabites  and  the  deliverance  by  Ehud  affected 
only  the  south.  Sisera  overran  the  nortli,  and  was  defeated  by 
the  tribes  of  Zebulon,  Issachar,  and  Xaphthali.  The  hordes  of 
the  Midianites  and  Amalekites  broke  into  the  centre,  and  Gideon 
led  against  them  the  tribes  of  Ephraim  and  Manasseh,  Zebulon 
and  Xaphthali.  The  scene  of  Jephthah's  resistance  to  the  Am- 
monites was  the  country  east  of  the  Jordan  ;  while,  on  the  south- 
west border,  the  people  were  perpetually  harassed  by  the  Philis- 
tines, from  the  days  of  Shamgar  to  those  of  Samson.  It  is  to  this 
local  character  of  the  scenes  of  the  history  of  the  Judges,  and  to 
the  probability  that  some  of  them  were  contemporaneous,  that 
we  must  look  for  the  solution  of  the  chronological  difliculties  of 
the  period.  Above  all  the  other  Judges,  before  the  holy  Samuel, 
towers  the  princely  figure  of  Gideon,  who  refused  the  offered 
crown  of  Israel,  and  whose  son  Abimelech  for  a  short  time  set  up 
at  Shechem  a  kingdom  which  bears  a  curious  resemblance  to  the 
Greek  tyrannies. 

After  the  temble  blows  inflicted  on  the  Midianites  by  Gideon 
and  on  the  Ammonites  by  Jephthah,  the  northern  and  eastern 
tribes  enjoyed  comparative  repose  ;  and  we  read  of  several  judges 
who  were  remarkable  only  for  the  dignities  they  confen-ed  on 
their  numerous  offspring.f  With  the  restoration  of  tranquillity, 
the  high-priesthood  emerges  from  its  obscurity  in  the  person  of 
Eli,  but  only  to  reveal  that  worst  corruption  of  the  theocratic 
commonwealth, — 

"  When  the  priest 
Turns  atheist,  as  did  Eli's  sons,  who  filled 
With  lust  and  violence  the  house  of  God." 


•  Judges  xvii.  6, 

\  Such  were  Tola,  Jair,  Ibzan,  Elon,  and  Abdon  ;  the  rule  of  each  being  •limited  to 
portions  of  the  land.     Judges  x.  1 — 5  ;  xii.  S — 15. 


B.C.  1131.]  PHILISTENE   OPPRESSION.     SA^IUEL.  167 

The  indulgent  weakness  of  Eli  and  the  profligacy  of  his  sons  were 
avenged  by  the  Philistines,  who,  having  long  threatened  the 
southern  tribes,  now  reduced  them  and,  as  it  would  seem,  the 
whole  country  to  subjection  (b.c.  1131).  For  forty  years  they  were 
complete  masters  over  Israel ;  and  they  were  only  finally  subdued 
by  David.  The  warlike  Danites  failed  to  support  their  champion 
Samson,  whose  ill-regulated  strength  forms  a  striking  contrast  to 
the  moral  power  of  Samuel.  Even,  the  men  of  Judah  submitted. 
An  attempt  to  cast  off  the  yoke  was  crushed  in  two  decisive  bat- 
tles at  Eben-ezer,  in  the  second  of  which  the  ark  of  God,  rashly 
brought  into  the  field  as  a  charm  for  victory,  was  captured,  Eli's 
two  sons  were  slain,  and  the  news  was  fatal  to  the  old  man  him- 
self. But  the  disasters  and  disgrace  which  the  captive  ark  brought 
upon  the  Philistines,  as  well  as  on  their  national  god,  Dagon, 
forced  them  to  confess  themselves  conquered  by  the  God  of  Israel, 
and  they  restored  the  ark  with  every  mark  of  honour, " 

Meanwhile  a  new  deliverer  was  preparing,  in  the  person  of 
the  godly  Samuel,  to  show  that  the  victory  was  only  to  be  gained 
by  devotion,  and  to  restore  the  glories  of  the  Theocracy  in  its  last 
days.  Tlie  story  of  his  birth  and  consecration,  his  training  in  the 
Sanctuary,  his  inspired  warning  to  Eli,  and  his  call  to  the  pro- 
phetic office,  is  too  well  known  to  require  repetition. 

The  order  of  Prophet  had  been  instituted  in  the  person  of 
Moses,  who  promised  that  a  succession  of  prophets  should  be 
raised  up  ;  and  Deborah  is  a  memorable  example  of  the  exercise 
of  the  ofiice.f  With  Samuel  begins  the  unbroken  succession 
which  was  maintained  by  the  "  schools  of  the  prophets,"  where 
men  marked  for  the  oflice  by  Divine  inspiration  were  trained  in 
sacred  learning  and  in  the  accomplishment  of  song.  Over  such 
a  school  Samuel  himself  presided  at  his  native  city  of  Pamah,  and 
there  the  people  used  to  resort  to  him  to  seek  for  Divine  direction 
in  common  affairs  as  well  as  great  emergencies.  Even  during 
the  life  of  Eli  it  was  known  that  the  prophetic  words  of  Samuel 
were  all  fulfilled  ;  and  on  Eli's  death,  Samuel  succeeded  him, 
not  indeed  as  priest,  but  in  the  office  of  judge.  The  days  of  Mo- 
ses and  Joshua  seemed  to  have  dawned  again  on  Israel.  Having 
put  away  their  idols,  they  were  gathered  at  Mizpeh  (the  Watch- 
Tower)^  one  of  the  heights  of  Benjamin  to  the  north  of  Jerusalem, 
to  keep  a  fast  and  renew  the  covenant.     Samuel  was  in  the  act  of 

*  To  state  the  grounds  for  placing  the  capture  of  the  ark  and  the  death  of  Eli  about 
B.C.  1111  would  involve  an  elaborate  chronological  discussion. 
f  Compare  Judges  ii.  1. 


168  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY.  [Cnxp.YlU. 

sacrificing,  wlicn  the  Pliilistines  marclied  out  of  their  camp  on  the 
opposite  liill,  secure  of  an  easy  victory.  But  they  were  encoun- 
tered by  the  prayer  of  Samuel  and  the  tliunders  of  God,  and  it 
only  remained  for  Israel  to  pursue  and  smite  their  routed  hosts. 
The  place  of  this  decisive  T)attle,  the  very  scene  of  the  former  dis- 
aster, received  that  expressive  name,  which  neither  cant  nor  scorn 
can  rob  of  the  sacred  principle  it  suggests,  that  every  monument 
of  true  success  is  a  "  Stone  of  Help  "  received  from  Gorl.  Tliis  vic- 
tory broke  the  power  of  the  Pliilistines ;  and  the  cities  lost  upon  their 
borders,  such  as  Ekron  and  Gath,  were  recovered,  while  tiie  Amor- 
ites  were  awed  into  peace.  Samuel  administered  justice  in  a  regu- 
lar circuit  through  the  soutli  and  centre,  his  home  being  at  Ilamali, 
It  seemed  as  if  the  Theocracy  was  revived  in  at  least  a  bright 
reflection  of  its  glory  ;  but  that  glory  scarcely  spread  beyond  the 
devotion  of  Samuel  himself.  His  sons,  appointed  judges  in  liis 
old  age,  proved  venal  and  corrupt ;  and  as  discontent  ate  away 
the  new  spirit  of  religious  patriotism,  the  Philistines  became  once 
more  formidable.  The  intermittent  anarchy  of  the  last  300  years 
threatened  to  return.  The  people  were  too  dispirited  to  seek  the 
remedy  in  the  renewal  of  their  covenant  with  Jehovah,  their  true 
King.  As  their  forefathers  had  asked  for  a  visible  God,  so  they 
demanded  a  visible  governor.  They  saw  the  surrounding  nations 
living  in  order  and  marching  forth  to  victory  under  their  kings  ; 
and,  while  sighing  for  order,  they  envied  the  means  of  conquest. 
They  asked  Samuel  for  a  King,  to  judge  them  like  the  other 
nations.*  The  case  had  been  foreseen  from  the  first ;  and  the 
Law  of  Moses,  even  while  condemning  the  desire  of  a  king  as 
treason  to  Jehovah,  had  laid  down  laws  for  the  kingdom. f  It  was 
not  till  after  a  passionate  expostulation,  and  a  plain  Avarning  of 
their  certain  loss  of  liberty,  that  Samuel  granted  their  request  at 
the  Divine  command  ;  and  the  self-willed  character  of  the  whole 
proceeding  was  illustrated  in  the  man  provided  for  their  choice. 
Fair  and  noble  in  person  above  all  his  countrymen  ;  brave  in  bat- 
tle, and  a  zealous  patriot ;  generous  in  his  impulses,  and  of  warm 
affections,  but  wanting  in  principle  and  vacillating  in  resolution  ; 
of  a  character  so  doubtful  that  his  appearance  among  the  prophets 
provoked  a  proverb  of  scorn  ;  subject  to  a  moody  jealousy  and  to 
fits  of  rage,  which  the  possession  of  power  ripened  into  madness, — 
Saul,  the  son  of  Kish,  was  the  fit  type  of  a  choice  "  according  to 
the  will  of  man."    The  nature  of  his  election  was  also  marked  by 

*   I  Samuel  viii.  6.  f  Deut.  xvii.  14 — 20. 


B.C.  1096.]  REIGN  OF   SAUL.  169 

his  not  even  belonging  to  the  tribe  on  which  Jacob's  prophetic 
blessing  had  bestowed  the  sceptre.  His  elevation  was  a  first  ex- 
periment in  royalty,  doomed  to  failnre  from  the  beginning  ;  and 
it  was  only  when  the  people  had  been  trampled  down  by  his 
tyranny,  and  involved  in  his  fatal  defeat,  that  a  lasting  monarchy 
was  set  np  according  to  the  Divine  will,  in  the  person  and  family 
of  David,  who  was  in  this  sense  "  the  man  after  God's  own  heart." 

These  transactions  belong  to  the  political,  and  not  merely  to 
the  religions  history  of  the  world.  Not  that  the  example  of  Israel 
prescribes  a  certain  form  of  government  as  of  Divine  anthority, 
or  even  as  in  itself  the  best  for  any  other  nation.  As  no  jjeople 
can  show  a  visible  theocracy,  so  no  monarchy  can  be  accused, 
simply  as  such,  of  usurping  the  Divine  prerogative.  But  still,  the 
transaction  does  involve  a  moral  lesson,  which  lies  at  the  founda- 
tion of  all  sound  policy,  condemning  the  abandonment  of  prin- 
ciple on  the  plea  of  expediency,  and  pointing,  by  the  example  of 
Israel,  the  doom  of  every  nation  that  seeks  safety  and  power  in  a 
course  known  to  be  wrong. 

In  the  Divine  sanction  of  Saul's  election,  and  the  covenant 
which  Samuel  made  between  the  king  and  people,  on  the  basis  of 
the  Mosaic  Law,  we  see  God  giving  to  both  the  opportunity  to 
make  the  best  of  their  new  relation  ;  and,  for  a  time,  all  appeared 
to  go  well.  While  Saul's  prompt  energy  delivered  the  men  of 
Gilead  from  the  king  of  Ammon,  and  silenced  all  cavils  against 
himself,  the  revived  tyranny  of  the  Philistines  was  held  in  check 
by  his  vigilance.  With  a  small  select  band,  he  encamped  at 
Gibeah,  in  the  hills  of  Benjamin,  opposite  to  their  fortified  posi- 
tion, which  was  surprised  by  the  daring  of  his  son  Jonathan  ;  and 
in  the  panic  that  ensued,  the  Israelites  gained  a  decisive  victory. 
All  the  border  tribes  on  the  north,  east,  and  south  were  defeated 
in  succession, — the  Syrians  of  Zobah,  Ammon,  Moab,  Edom,  and 
Amalek.  The  sparing  of  the  last-named  people  and  their  king, 
with  their  flocks  and  herds,  though  not  the  first  instance  of  Saul's 
arrogant  self-will,  was  a  decisive  act  of  disobedience.  In  the 
very  moment  of  his  triumph,  Samuel  was  sent  to  pronounce  his 
deposition,  and  to  anoint  David  as  his  successor.  The  jirophet  had 
already  taken  his  farewell  of  the  people,  jjrotesting  the  integrity 
of  his  government,  upbraiding  them  for  their  rebellion,  but  prom- 
ising blessings  on  them  and  their  king  if  they  remained  faithful. 
He  now  retired  home  to  indulge  his  sorrow  over  Saul's  rejection. 
The  remainder  of  Saul's  reign  was  embittered  by  his  jealousy  and 
disgraced  by  his  persecution  of  David,  the  details  of  whose  life 


170  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY.  [Chap.  VIU. 

— at  his  native  Betlilehem,  at  the  court  of  Saul,  and  in  exile — we 
must  leave  to  Scripture  history. 

Meanwhile  the  miraculous  victory  of  David  over  Goliath  had 
been  followed  up  by  him  with  repeated  blows  on  the  Philistines  ; 
but,  when  he  was  driven  into  exile,  the  enemy  renewed  their  in- 
vasions, till  at  last  the  reign  of  Saul  was  ended  by  the  terrible 
catastrophe  of  Gilboa,  in  which  he  and  his  noble  son  Jonathan 
perished  together,  lamented  by  David  in  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
of  elegies  (b.c.  1056).  The  tribe  of  Judah  at  once  declared  for 
David,  who  was  made  king  at  Hebron ;  but  the  other  tribes  ad- 
hered to  the  house  of  Saul,  showing  how  early  was  the  division 
which  proved  afterwards  so  fatal  to  the  monarchy,  A  civil  war 
ensued,  disgraced  by  the  treacherous  murders  of  the  noble  Abner, 
and  of  Ishbosheth,  Saul's  feeble  son  ;  and  seven-and-a-half  years 
elapsed  before  David  was  made  king  by  the  consent  of  all  the 
tribes,  at  the  age  of  thirty  years  (b.c.  1048).  He  fixed  his  resi- 
dence at  Jerusalem,  which  he  wrested  from  the  Jebusites. 

The  character  of  David  forms  one  of  the  most  interesting 
studies  in  sacred  history.  Its  religious  features  are  perfectly  re- 
flected in  the  Psalms,  which  breathe  a  sincerity  as  deep  as  their 
devotion  is  exalted.  Its  moral  aspect  is  faithfully  recorded,  with 
its  deep  blemishes,  in  the  historical  books  founded  on  the  writings 
of  the  prophets  who  exercised  their  ministry  at  his  court.  The 
plain  exposure  of  his  great  fall,  and  of  its  fatal  consequence,  with 
his  own  outpourings  of  profound  repentance,  might  have  disarmed 
the  scorn  of  any  but  those  in  whose  eyes  his  piety  is  his  greatest 
crime,  and  will  ever  be  studied  with  trembling  sympathy  by  men 
who  know  the  treachery  of  their  own  nature.  His  lesser  faults, 
Buch  as  his  weakness  as  a  parent — itself  to  a  great  extent  the  con- 
sequence of  his  polygamy — we  see  severely  punished,  as  well  as 
unsparingly  exposed,  in  the  history  of  his  life.  "What  remains  is. 
the  character  of  the  greatest  hero  of  human  history.  Endowed 
with  the  highest  natural  gifts,  the  purest  tastes,  and  the  noblest 
courage,  he  received  in  the  successive  stages  of  his  life  the  best 
training  for  his  exalted  destiny.  The  calm  meditative  life  of  a 
shepherd  youth,  varied  by  brave  exploits  against  wild  beasts  and 
Arab  robbers, — the  humble  position  of  the  youngest  son,  slightly 
regarded  by  his  goodly  brothers,  but  preferred  to  them  by  Him 
who  "  seeth  not  as  man  seeth," — the  courtly  experience,  adorned 
with  mutual  affection,  which  he  gained  in  soothing  the  malady 
of  Saul,  and  the  tender  bond  of  love  between  him  and  Jonathan, 
— the  triumph  of  his  faith  in  the  victory  over  the  Philistine, — 


B.C.  1056—1015.]  REIGN  OF  DAVID.  171 

his  fidelity  to  liis  jealous  master,  Lis  favour  witli  tlie  people,  and 
his  daring  exploits  in  war, — the  long  and  hard  trial  of  adversity 
and  exile,  in  contact  with  the  wildest  of  his  countrymen  and  the 
enemies  of  his  country,  without  the  loss  of  his  piety  and  his  mag- 
nanimity ; — these  are  but  some  traits  of  the  character  which  he 
brought  with  him  to  the  throne. 

We  need  not  trace  the  details  of  the  campaigns  in  which  David 
at  length  subdued  all  the  enemies  who  had  troubled  Israel  for  400 
years,  and  extended  the  boundaries  of  his  kingdom  to  the  limits 
named  in  the  promise  to  Abraham — from  the  borders  of  Egypt  to 
the  Euphrates,  and  from  the  valley  of  Coele-Syria  to  the  eastern 
gulf  of  the  Ked  Sea  ;  severely  chastising  the  Amalekites,  and  re- 
ducing to  tribute  the  Philistines,  the  Moabites,  the  Edomites,  and 
the  Syrians  of  Zobtih.  The  Syrian  kingdom  of  Hamatli  (in  the 
valley  of  the  Orontes)  was  admitted  to  an  alliance,  and  Hiram, 
king  of  Tyre,  formed  a  close  league  with  David. 

The  commercial  resources  of  this  ally,  and  his  command  of  the 
cedar  forests  of  Lebanon,  aided  David  in  preparing  to  execute  his 
cherished  purpose  of  establishing  the  sanctuary  at  his  new  capital 
of  Jerusalem,  Early  in  his  reign,  he  removed  the  ark  from 
Kirjath-jearim,  where  it  had  remained  since  its  restoration  by  the 
Philistines,  to  his  new  city  on  Mount  Zion  (b.c.  1042) ;  *  but  the 
provision  for  its  permanent  abode  was  long  hindered,  first  by  his 
wars,  and  then  by  his  reverses.  It  was  during  his  last  war  with 
the  Ammonites  (in  b.c.  1035),  that  David,  remaining  at  home  to 
enjoy  his  regal  state  in  his  new-built  palace,  was  enticed  by  the 
sight  of  Bathsheba  into  the  adultery  and  murder,  which  have  ever 
since,  as  the  prophet  Nathan  warned  him,  "  given  great  occasion  to 
the  enemy  to  blaspheme."  Twelve  years  later  (b.c.  1023),  a  series 
of  discords  and  crimes  in  his  own  family  found  their  climax  in 
the  revolt  of  Absalom  and  David's  expulsion  from  Jerusalem ; 
and  his  restoration  was  embittered  by  the  death  of  his  favourite 
son  ;  nor  were  his  last  years  ever  free  from  troubles.  The  great 
plague,  which  followed  on  his  numbering  the  people,  was  ended 
by  the  Divine  indication  of  the  site  for  the  Temple,  on  the  summit 
of  Mount  Moriah  (b.c.  1017) ;  and  Solomon,  David's  youngest 
son  (by  Bathsheba),  was  proclaimed  as  his  successor,  and  entrusted 
with  the  work  of  building  the  Temple,  and  with  all  the  treasures 
collected  for  it  by  his  father — the  spoils  of  war  and  the  ofierings 
of  the  people.     David's  zeal  had  been  animated  by  the  prophet 

*  "We  agaia  refer  to  the  special  works  illustrative  of  Scripture  and  the  Holy  Land 
for  an  account  of  the  topography  of  Jerusalem. 


173  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY.  [Chap.  VIH. 

Nathan's  declaration,  that  God  would  establish  a  perpetual  king- 
dom in  his  house  ;  and  now  he  celebrated,  in  the  last  and  noblest 
of  his  inspired  poems,  the  full  scope  of  that  prophecy,  as  pointing 
through  the  peaceful  reign  of  Solomon  to  the  kingdom  of  the 
Messiah.*  And  this  is  the  true  key  to  the  place  of  David  and  his 
kingdom  in  the  liistory  of  the  world.  As  his  troubled  but  suc- 
cessful reign,  his  faulty  but  noble  life,  closed  with  the  settlement 
of  a  peaceful  empire  and  the  erection  of  God's  temple  in  its  chosen 
abode  upon  the  earth,  so  shall  all  the  wars,  the  calamities,  the  crimes 
and  errors  of  mankind,  end  in  the  reign  of  the  Prince  of  Peace 
and  the  gathering  of  all  nations  into  Ilis  Church. 

The  revolt  of  Adonijah,  his  eldest  surviving  son,  induced  David, 
now  on  his  deathbed,  to  cause  Solomon  to  be  proclaimed  king ; 
and  all  Israel  repeated  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  him  after  his 
father's  death  (b.c.  1015).  David  had  reigned  forty  years  in  all. 
Solomon  now  ruled  over  the  most  powerful  empire  of  Western  Asia. 
The  crown  of  Egypt  was  disputed  by  rival  dynasties,  and  Assyria 
was  only  growing  into  importance.  The  tributary  state  of  Edom 
gave  him  the  ports  of  Elath  and  Ezion-Geber  on  the  Red  Sea,  and 
by  his  alliance  witli  Hiram,  king  of  Tyre,  he  had  the  command  of 
those  of  Phoenicia.  The  combined  navies  of  the  two  kings  carried 
on  regular  commercial  enterprises  in  the  Indian  Ocean  and  the 
Mediterranean  (extending  not  imjjrobably  into  the  Atlantic),  which 
brought  to  Solomon  the  treasures  and  luxuries  both  of  the  East 
and  "West.  Holding  in  subjection  the  petty  Syrian  kingdoms  on 
the  north-eastern  frontier,  he  maintained  a  caravan  route  to  the 
Euphrates  across  the  desert,  where  he  built  the  city  of  Tadmor, 
famed  in  later  ages  under  the  name  of  Palmyra.f  But  the  young 
king  was  still  more  distinguished  by  his  simple-hearted  devotion, 
his  even-handed  justice,  his  practical  sagacity,  and  his  unbounded 
love  of  learning.  Ascending  the  throne  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  he 
made  the  deliberate  choice  of  wisdom — the  practical  wisdom  need- 
ed for  his  duties — rather  than  riches,  victory,  and  length  of  days  ; 
and  he  was  rewarded  by  the  gift  of  all  these.  His  celebrated 
judgment  between  the  two  mothers  presents  a  vivid  picture  of  that 
quick  discernment  which  the  Orientals  hold  in  the  highest  value. 
His  administration  of  justice  in  person,  and  his  conversations  with 
his  courtiers  and  with  foreign  visitors,  gave  him  daily  opportuni- 
ties to  utter  those  wise  sayings,  the  fame  of  which  spread  to  all  the 

*  Psalm  Ixxii. 

f  The  two  names  have  the  same  meaning,  the  City  of  Palms.     The  existing  ruins 
are  of  the  Roman  period. 


B.C.  1015— 975.]  REIGN  OF   SOLOMOK"  173 

surrounding  nations ;  while  lie  embodied  tlie  choicest  of  them,  for 
the  use  of  all  subsequent  ages,  in  the  Book  of  Proverbs. 

Solomon's  chief  public  care,  from  the  moment  of  his  accession, 
was  to  erect  the  Temple  according  to  the  designs  furnished  by  his 
father.  The  friendship  of  Hiram  supplied,  in  addition  to  the 
materials  provided  by  David,  cedars  and  other  timber,  which  was 
cut  in  Lebanon  by  gangs  of  labourers  whom  Solomon  furnished 
with  food,  and  was  brought  round  in  floats  by  the  Phoenician 
sailors.  Tjre  also  supplied  skilful  artificers  and  the  chief  designer, 
a  namesake  of  king  Hiram.  The  building  occupied  seven  years ; 
and  such  was  the  respect  paid  to  the  sanctity  of  the  spot,  that 
during  the  whole  time  no  sound  of  axe  or  hammer  was  heard, 
every  block  and  beam  being  previously  fitted  for  the  place  it  was 
to  occupy  in  the  structure.  This  is  not  the  place  to  describe  the 
details  of  the  wondrous  edifice,  in  which  all  the  external  glories  of 
the  Jewish  dispensation  culminated; — "beautiful  for  situation, 
the  joy  of  the  whole  earth ! "  In  the  total  absence  of  plans,  pic- 
tures, and  even  ruins,  the  minute  description  in  the  First  Book 
of  Kings  is  insufficient  to  throw  much  light  on  the  state  of  archi- 
tecture among  the  Jews.  There  seems  to  have  been  a  general 
resemblance  to  the  Egyptian  temple ;  but  even  this  is  a  matter  of 
dispute.  Its  essential  part  was  modelled  upon  the  plan  of  the 
Tabernacle,  having  the  outer  court  for  the  worshippers  and  their 
sacrifices ;  the  first  sanctuary,  or  Holy  Place,  for  the  priests  in 
their  daily  ministrations ;  and  the  inmost  chamber,  or  Holy  of 
Holies,  for  the  place  of  the  Ark  and  the  throne  of  Jehovah,  into 
which  the  high  priest  alone  might  enter,  and  only  once  in  the  year : 
all  typical  of  the  spiritual  worship  of  the  true  sanctuary.  Its 
early  profanation  and  ultimate  destruction  teach  that  there  is  a 
nobler  and  more  lasting  worship  than  that  which  the  senses  can 
ofier,  however  external  splendours  may  aid  the  imperfect  efforts  of 
a  sensuous  state.  Meanwhile  the  magnificent  offering  of  the  piety 
of  king  and  people  was  consecrated  by  the  cloud  of  glory  in 
which  Jehovah  took  possession  of  His  house ;  and  the  ceremony  of 
its  consecration  was  the  grandest  religious  service  probably  that 
ever  has  been  or  will  be  performed  upon  the  earth.* 

But  the  same  hands  that  reared  this  "  holy  and  beautiful  house 
^f  God  "  confronted  it  ere  long  with  heathen  sanctuaries,  insult- 

*  Respecting  the  epoch  which  the  building  of  the  Temple  forms  in  chronology,  see 
the  note  on  Scripture  Chronology,  p.  10.  Ussher  places  its  commencement  in  b.c 
1012,  and  its  completion  in  b.c.  1005.  The  palace  and  other  edifices  of  Solomon  occu- 
pied thirteen  years  in  building  (b.c.  1005 — 992). 


174  THE  HEBREW  MONARCHY.  [Chap.  VHI. 

ing  to  Jehovah,  and  the  disgrace  both  of  king  and  people.  Early 
in  his  reign,  Solomon  had  married  the  daughter  of  Pharaoh,  king 
of  Egypt ;  *  and  in  his  later  days  he  fonned  a  harem  of  princesses 
of  the  heathen  nations  that  were  his  allies  and  tributaries.  The 
result  was  the  religious  apostasy 

"  Of  that  uxorious  king,  whose  heart,  though  large, 
Beguiled  by  fair  idolatresses,  fell 
To  idols  foul." 

It  was  the  custom  of  the  Eastern  nations  to  choose  the  summits  of 
hills  as  sanctuaries.  Of  such  "high  places"  we  have  seen 
examples  in  Horeb,  "  the  Mount  ,of  God,"  and  in  Nebo,  on  which 
Balaam  tried  his  divination  against  Israel.  Opposite  to  the 
eastern  front  of  Mount  Zion  and  Moriah  rose  a  still  loftier  hill,f 
whose  natural  name  now  suggests  far  other  associations  than  tRose 
which  gained  for  it  the  title  of  the  Mount  of  Offence.  Solomon 
chose  this  eminence  for  the  shrines  of  the  false  gods  of  his  wives, 
and  even  worshipped  them  himself.  For  this  apostasy  his  house 
was  doomed  to  lose  the  fairest  portion  of  the  kingdom,  and  the 
sentence  began  to  work  in  his  later  years.  Hadad,.  a  prince  of 
Edom,  who  had  been  saved  from  the  slaughter  of  the  nation  by 
David,  and  had  married  the  new  king  of  Egypt's  daughter, 
returned  to  rouse  his  people  to  a  rebellion.  On  the  north-eastern 
frontier  there  appeared  another  enemy,  Rezon,  who,  after  the 
overthrow  of  the  kingdom  of  Zobah  by  David,  had  collected  a 
band  and  maintained  himself  at  Damascus.  This  was  the  origin 
of  the  Syrian  kingdom  of  Damascus,  which  became  very  powerful 
after  the  disruption  of  the  Hebrew  monarchy ;  and  after  being 
mixed  up  with  the  history  of  both  kingdoms,  sometimes  as  an 
enemy,  sometimes  as  an  ally,  was  at  last  extinguished  by  Tiglath- 
pileser,  king  of  Assyria,  shortly  before  the  captivity  of  the  Ten 
Tribes  (b.c.  740). 

But  a  more  pressing  danger  arose  within  the  kingdom  itself. 
It  had  been  declared  to  Solomon  that,  for  his  idolatries,  God 
would  rend  the  kingdom  from  his  son,  leaving  him,  however, 
one  tribe  for  the  sake  of  His  covenant  with  David.  The  instru- 
ment of  fulfilling  this  prophecy  was  Jeroboaji,  the  son  of  Nebat, 
whose  services  in  the  public  works  had  been  rewarded  by  Solomon 

*  This  Pharaoh  seems  to  have  been  the  last  king  of  the  Twenty-first  Dynasty.  The 
change  of  djmasty  will  help  to  account  for  the  alliance  of  his  successor  with  Jeroboam, 
and  his  attack  on  Rehoboam.     See  chapter  vii.  pp.  125,  126. 

f  Jerusalem  is  2200  feet  above  the  sea-level,  the  Mount  of  Olives  2398  feet.  Some 
topographers  distinguish  the  Mount  of  Olives  and  the  Mount  of  Offence,  but  both  belong 
to  the  same  range. 


B.C.  975.]  DIVISION  OF  THE  KINGDOM.  175 

with  an  office  that  gave  him  great  influence  in  the  tribes  of 
Ephraim  and  Manasseh.  To  this  man  the  prophet  Ahijah  fore- 
told his  elevation  by  a  significant  act ;  and  Solomon,  hearing  of 
the  prediction,  sought  his  life.  Jeroboam,  however,  escaped  to 
Egypt,  and,  like  Hadad,  obtained  the  protection  of  Shishak,  till 
the  death  of  Solomon.  That  event  happened  in  e.g.  9Y5,  after  a 
reign  of  forty  years.  Having  tasted  all  the  sweets  of  power, 
wealth,  and  knowledge,  and  having  abused  them  by  luxury  and 
insatiable  curiosity,  Solomon  has  left  us,  in  the  Book  of  Ecele- 
siastes,  his  experience  of  a  life  thus  drained  to  the  dregs — that 
the  world  is  "  vanity  of  vanities,"  and  that  the  fear  of  God  is 
the  whole  life  of  man. 

His  government  had  been  arbitrary,  and  his  public  works  oppres- 
sive ;  and  the  old  jealousy  of  the  other  tribes,  headed  by  Ephraim, 
against  Judah  and  the  house  of  David,  was  ever  ready  to  break 
out  afresh.  The  petulant  refusal  of  Solomon's  son,  Rehoboam, 
against  the  advice  of  his  father's  old  counsellors,  to  mitigate  the 
people's  burthens,  was  seized  as  the  opportunity  for  revolt. 
Jeroboam  was  proclaimed  King  of  Israel,  the  tribe  of  Judah 
alone  remaining  faithful  to  Rehoboam.  The  subsequent  accession 
of  Benjamin  to  the  southern  kingdom,  and  the  anti-religious 
policy  which  drove  the  Levites  out  of  Israel,  added  to  the  strength 
of  Judah,  which  had  already  a  population  much  exceeding  the 
proportion  of  its  territory.*  The  two  kingdoms,  henceforth 
known  as  those  of  Israel  and  Judah,  were  divided  by  a  geo- 
graphical boundary  passing  along  the  southern  border  of  Ephraim ; 
but  it  was  not  long  before  the  increased  power  of  Judah  enabled 
it  to  embrace  a  great  portion  of  that  tribe.  The  whole  territory 
of  Simeon,  and  of  the  Danites  who  had  remained  when  the  rest  of 
the  tribe  migrated  to  the  north,  was  included  in  Judah,  which 
retained  the  dependencies  of  Philistia,  Moab,  and  Edom,  and  with 
the  latter  the  ports  on  the  Red  Sea.  On  the  other  hand,  it  was 
cut  off  from  the  far  more  important  commerce  of  Phoenicia. 
But  the  great  strength  of  Judah  lay  in  the  possession  of  the 
sanctuary  at  Jerusalem,  and  in  the  knowledge  that  God's  covenant 
of  the  kingdom  was  made  with  the  house  of  David.  The  seces- 
sion of  the  northern  tribes  was  a  clear  rebellion,  w^liich  the  policy 
of  Jeroboam  at  once  converted  into  a  religious  apostasy.  To 
guard  against  the  dangers  that  would  follow  from  the  annual 
resort  of  his  subjects  to  Jerusalem  at  the  great  feasts,  he  imitated 

*  At  the  census  of  David,  Judah  numbered  500,000  fighting  men,  and  the  other 
tribes  800,000.     The  area  of  Israel  was  nearly  four  times  that  of  Judah. 


176  THE  KINGDOM  OF  ISRAEL.  [Chap.  VIIL 

the  device  of  Aaron  in  setting  up  tlie  golden  calf  as  a  symbol  of 
Jeliovali's  presence ;  with  this  difference  that — 

"  The  rebel  king 
Doubled  that  sin,  in  Bethel  and  in  Dan," 

the  northern  and  southern  extremities  of  his  dominions.  For 
this  new  worship  he  made  priests  of  the  lowest  of  the  people, 
while  he  robbed  the  old  priests  and  Levites  of  their  possessions, 
and  so  drove  them  into  Judah.  The  succeeding  kings  of  Israel 
all  maintained  the  worship  of  the  calves ;  they  continually  added 
fresh  idolatries,  till  the  marriage  of  Ahab  with  Jezebel,  the 
daughter  of  Ethbaal,  king  of  Tyre,  led  to  the  public  establish- 
ment of  the  worship  of  Baal  and  the  suppression  of  the  worship 
of  Jehovah.  This  twofold  curse  of  rebellion  and  apostasy  clung 
to  the  kingdom  of  Israel,  the  history  of  which  is  marked  by  a 
succession  of  bloody  revolutions  and  shortlived  dynasties,  whose 
kings  vied  witli  each  other  in  profanity  and  t^Tanny.  The  d^masty 
of  Jeroboam  ended  with  the  murder  of  his  son  ISTadab  in  a 
military  revolution  (b.c.  953).  That  of  the  usurper  Baasha 
expired  in  like  manner  with  the  murder  of  his  son  Elah  by 
Zimri,  who  was  himself  killed  after  a  seven  days'  reign  (b.c. 
929),  Omri,  the  avenger  of  his  master,  and  the  father  of  Ahab 
(the  Kero  of  Hebrew  history),  established  a  dynasty  which  num- 
bered four  kings,  and  lasted  forty  years.  Its  extinction  forms  an 
epoch  of  synchronism  in  the  annals  of  the  two  kingdoms.  One 
result  of  the  fatal  alliance  of  Jehoshaphat,  the  fourth  king  of 
Judah,  with  Ahab,  was  the  marriage  of  Jiis  son  Jehoram  to 
Athaliah,  the  daughter  of  Ahab  and  Jezebel,  and  the  introduction 
of  the  worship  of  Baal  into  Judah ;  and  the  furious  zeal  of  Jehu, 
the  son  of  Nimshi,  involved  Ahaziah,  the  king  of  Judah 
(Jehoram's  son),  in  the  same  fate  with  Jehoram,  the  son  of 
Ahab,  and  his  mother  Jezebel  (b.c.  88i).  The  time  of  Ahab's 
dynasty  is  marked  by  the  missions  of  Elijah  and  Elisha,  the 
greatest  of  that  series  of  prophets,  who  never  ceased  to  testify 
against  the  idolatries  of  Israel,  and  to  warn  king  and  people  of 
the  fate  that  Moses  had  predicted.  We  must,  however,  leave  the 
story  of  their  ministry  to  the  separate  province  of  Scripture  History. 
During  the  first  period  of  ninety  years,  the  kingdom  of  Israel 
was  greatly  weakened  by  continual  war  with  Judah,  and  its 
borders  were  contracted  by  the  growing  power  of  Syeia.  That 
kino-dom,  which  we  have  seen  founded  at  Damascus  by  Rezon 
(before  b.c.  975),  was  ruled  by  three  more  kings  of  his  d^niasty — 
Tabrimons  (about  b.c.  960),  Benhadad  I.  (b.c.  941),  and  Benha- 


B.C.  975—721.]     FOREIGN  RELATIONS  AND  WARS.  177 

dad  II.  (b.c,  910).  The  first  Benhadad  was  bribed  to  attack 
Israel  by  Asa,  the  third  king  of  Judah,  when  the  latter  was  hard 
pressed  by  Baasha,  and  the  Syrian  king  took  sev^eral  cities  in  the 
north.  Benhadad  II.  attempted  to  conquer  Israel,  but  was  utter- 
ly defeated  by  Ahab  in  two  campaigns  (b.c.  901,  900),  taken 
prisoner,  and  admitted  to  an  alliance  on  terms  dictated  by  the 
king  of  Israel.  He  still,  however,  held  Eamoth  in  Gilead,  and 
it  M'as  in  the  attempt  to  recover  this  city  that  Ahab  and  Jelio- 
shaphat  were  defeated,  and  the  former  lost  his  life.  To  his  reign 
belongs  the  beautiful  episode  of  the  cure  of  Naaman  by  Elisha. 
Renewing  the  war  with  Jehoram,  he  subjected  Samaria  to  that 
terrible  blockade  and  famine  which  was  miraculously  relieved 
according  to  the  prophecy  of  Elisha  (b.c.  892).  He  was  at  length 
murdered  by  his  general  Hazael  (who  had  been  anointed,  with 
Jehu  and  Elisha,  as  one  of  the  destined  avengers  of  the  idolatries 
of  Israel),  just  before  the  deaths  of  Jehoram  and  Ahaziah  (b.c. 
885).  Hazael  ravaged  the  country  east  of  Jordan  with  the  ut- 
most cruelty,  while  Jehu  was  engaged  in  destroying  the  house  of 
Ahab  ;  he  became  almost  complete  master  of  Israel  during  the 
reign  of  Jehoahaz,  the  son  of  Jehu,  and  then  invaded  Judah  and 
laid  siege  to  Jemsalem,  which  the  king  Joash  only  induced  him 
to  spare  by  a  large  bribe  (b.c.  840). 

Meanwlnle,  though  Jehu,  after  massacring  all  the  house  of 
Ahab  and  the  worshippers  of  Baal,  had  so  far  declined  from  his 
first  zeal  as  to  worship  the  golden  calves,  the  state  of  Israel  was 
greatly  improved.  His  son  Jehoahaz  (b.c  856)  followed  in  the 
same  idolatry,  but  repented  ;  and  his  son  Joash  (b.c.  839),  listen- 
ing to  the  reproofs  of  Elisha,  was  permitted  to  gain  three  great 
victories  over  the  Syrians,  and  to  recover  the  cities  they  had  taken 
on  the  west  of  Jordan.  The  next  king,  Jeroboam  II.,  the  sou  of 
Joash  (b.c.  825),  recovered  all  the  territory  which  the  Syrians  had 
taken,  east  of  Jordan,  from  Hamath  to  the  Dead  Sea,  and  even 
took  Damascus.  These  victories  were  gained  over  Benhadad  III., 
who  had  succeeded  Hazael  about  b.c.  839,  after  wliom  we  have 
little  certain  knowledge  of  the  history  of  Syria. 

The  kingdom  of  Israel  had  now  recovered,  under  Jeroboam 
II.,  a  power  greater  than  it  had  ever  before  j)ossessed.  But  the 
idolatry  of  the  calves  was  still  maintained,  and  the  warnings  of 
its  doom  came  nearer  and  louder  in  the  prophecies  of  Amos  and 
Hosea.  The  dynasty  of  Jehu  ended  amidst  political  confusion, 
with  the  murder  of  his  son  Zechariah  by  Shallum,  who  was  him- 
self killed  six  months  later  by  Menahem  (b.c.  772). 

VOL.  I. — 12 


178  THE  KINGDOM   OF  ISRAEL.  [Chap.  VIII. 

TJie  great  Assyrian  empire  now  appears  in  the  sacred  annals. 
Its  history  will  be  traced  in  the  next  chapter.  The  king  Pul, 
liaving  overrun  Syria,  invaded  Israel,  and  received  an  enonnous 
tribute  from  Menaheni ;  hut  the  conquest  was  not  yet  completed. 
Both  Syria  and  Israel  revived  for  a  short  time,  the  former  under 
Rezin,  and  the  latter  under  Pekah,  who  had  murdered  Pekahiah, 
the  son  of  Menah(3m  (b.c.  759).  The  combined  attacks  of  these 
two  kings  on  Judah  (u.c.  742 — 741)  reduced  Ahaz  to  such  ex- 
tremities, that  he  applied  for  aid  to  the  Assyrian  king  Tiglath- 
pileser,  wdio  first  put  an  end  to  the  kingdom  of  Syria,  and  then 
carried  captive  into  Media  the  tribes  of  Israel  east  of  the  Jor- 
dan, and  a  large  part  of  the  inhabitants  of  Galilee.  Pekah  was 
put  to  death  by  a  conspiracy  headed  by  Iloshea  (b.c.  739),  who 
became,  after  a  period  of  anarchy,  the  nineteenth  and  last  king 
of  Israel,  now  contracted  to  the  district  round  Samaria.  His 
eiforts  at  reform,  in  concert  with  Hezekiah,  king  of  Judah,  proved 
too  late.  For  the  third  time,  the  Assyrians  invaded  Israel  under 
Shalmaneser,  and  Hoshea  submitted  to  become  a  tributary  (b.c. 
728) ;  but  three  years  later  he  rebelled,  relying  on  the  aid  of  So, 
king  of  Egypt  (probably  Sabaco  II.).  But  his  ally  failed  him  ;  he 
was  sent  for  by  Shalmaneser  and  imprisoned ;  Samaria  was  taken 
after  a  three  years'  siege ;  the  remnant  of  the  Ten  Tribes  were 
carried  into  captivity  beyond  the  Euphrates,  and  settled  in  the 
eastern  provinces  of  the  Assyrian  empire  (b.c.  721).  The  greater 
number  of  them  probably  lapsed  into  idolatry,  and  became  con- 
founded Avith  the  surrounding  nations  ;  but  it  is  clear  that  many 
obeyed  the  invitation  addressed  by  Cyrus  to  all  his  Hebrew  sub- 
jects, and  returned  to  Palestine  with  the  restored  people  of  Ju- 
dah. Tlie  land,  depoj)ulated  by  their  removal,  was  repeopled  by 
settlers  whom  Esarhaddon,  the  son  of  Sennacherib,  transported 
from  Babylon  and  the  neighbouring  cities  (about  b.c.  G78).  These 
strangers,  plagued  by  the  wild  beasts  that  had  nniltiplied  while 
the  country  lay  waste,  conceived  a  superstitious  fear  of  ''  the  god 
of  the  land,"  and  applied  for  instruction  in  his  worship.  Esar- 
haddon sent  them  a  priest  to  teach  them  ;  and  the  result  was  a 
strange  confusion  of  the  worship  of  Jehovah  with  that  of  their 
own  idols.  These  people,  with  some  intermixture  of  Hebrews, 
partly  left  in  the  lantl  and  partly  joining  them  afterwards,  became 
the  ancestors  of  the  later  Samaritans. 

Nineteen  kings  had  reigned  over  Israel  for  a  period  of  254 
years,  an  average  of  almost  thirteen  years  and  a  half.     In  Judah 


B.C.  975.]  THE   KINGDOM  OF   JUDAH.  179 

the  same  number  of  kings  occupied  a  space  of  3S9  years,  or  135 
years  longer,  giving  an  average  of  more  than  twenty  years.*  The 
vahie  of  the  computation  may  be  better  seen  by  a  comparison 
with  our  own  country,  over  which  thirty-five  kings  have  reigned 
from  the  Conquest  to  the  accession  of  Victoria,  an  average  of  just 
twenty-two  years.  These  numbers  at  once  show  the  superior  sta- 
bility of  the  kingdom  of  Judah,  which  remained  all  this  time  in 
the  house  of  David,  and  was  transmitted  in  the  direct  line  from 
father  to  son  with  only  two  exceptions  in  the  concluding  years  of 
confusion.f  Ten  of  the  nineteen  kings  died  violent  deaths  or  were 
deposed.  Many  of  them  w^ere  idolaters  and  corrupt  in  other  re- 
spects ;  but  their  evil  influence  was  for  a  long  time  counteracted 
by  great  reformers,  who  held  fast  to  the  first  duty  of  a  Hebrew 
monarch,  allegiance  to  Jehovah  as  the  supreme  king ;  such  as 
Asa,  Jehoshajihat,  Hezekiah,  and  Josiah,  with  whom  must  be 
n Limbered  the  high  priest  Jehoiada.  The  faith  of  these  reformers 
rested  on  God's  covenant ;  their  zeal  was  animated  by  the  pos- 
session of  the  sanctuary  of  Jehovah  ;  but  the  steady  growth  of 
corruption  among  the  people  proved  too  strong  for  all  their 
efforts  ;  nor  had  the  best  of  them  faith  enough  in  "  their  Living 
Strength  "  to  avoid  the  entanglement  of  foreign  alliances. 

The  first  king,  Eehoboam  (b.c.  975),  after  a  vain  attempt  to 
reduce  the  Ten  Tribes  by  force  of  arms,  was  himself  subjected  by 
Shishak,  king  of  Egypt,  who  invaded  Judah  and  plundered  the 
temple  and  palaces  of  the  riches  gathered  by  Solomon  (b.c.  972). 
This  was  not  a  mere  incursion,  but  a  real  though  temporary  con- 
quest.:}: It  is  ascribed  by  the  sacred  historian  to  the  idolatry  into 
which  king  and  people  had  fallen,  and  of  which  they  repented  at 
the  rebuke  of  the  prophet  Shemaiah.  The  distinct  recognition  of 
this  alternation  of  Divine  chastisements  for  sin,  and  Divine  favours 
restored  through  the  repentance  of  the  people  at  the  preaching  of 
the  prophets,  is  the  only  point  of  view  from  which  the  Jewish 
history  can  be  properly  understood.  Nor  was  their  position  in 
this  respect  entirely  unique.  All  nations  are  subject  to  the  like 
discipline  in  the  course  of  Divine  Providence  ;  and,  though  not 

*  In  this  computation,  the  usurpation  of  Athaliah  is  included  ni  the  reign  of  Joash, 
just  as  we  include  the  Commonwealth  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II.  The  want  of  perfect 
agreement  between  the  separate  years  and  the  total  is  explained  on  the  supposition  of 
sons  having  been  associated  with  their  fathers  in  the  kingdom. 

•j-  The  following  list  of  the  last  five  kings  shows  these  exceptions.  (15)  Josiah  ;  (16) 
Jehoahaz,  son  of  Josiah  ;  (17)  Jehoiakim,  son  of  Josiah ;  (18)  Jehoiachin,  son  of  Jehoi- 
akim ;  (19)  Zedekiah,  son  of  Josiah. 

J  See  chapter  vii.  p.  125. 


180  THE  KINGDOM   OF   JUDAH.  [Chap.  VIII. 

explained  in  each  case  by  the  voice  of  a  prophet,  tlie  great  prin- 
ciples of  God's  moral  government  are  revealed  with  equal  clear- 
ness. It  is  not  that  the  hand  of  God  is  absent  from  the  affairs 
of  the  world,  but  that  its  working  is  far  too  much  left  out  of  the 
account  by  worldly  statesmen  and  historians.  In  this,  too,  the 
history  of  the  chosen  people  is  an  epitome  of  the  history  of  the 
world. 

The  short  and  wicked  reign  of  Abijah  (b.c.  958)  is  only  re- 
markable for  a  great  victory  gained  over  Jeroboam.  His  son,  Asa 
(b.c.  955),  after  a  vigorous  reformation  of  the  kingdom,  shook  off 
the  yoke  of  Egypt  and  gained  a  gTcat  victory  over  "  Zerah  the 
Cushite."  *  Being  hard  pressed  by  Baasha,  king  of  Israel,  he 
formed  an  alliance  with  Benhadad  I.,  whose  invasion  of  the  nortli 
not  only  relieved  Judah,  but  enabled  Asa  to  add  permanently  to 
the  kingdom  several  cities  of  Ephraim.f  Eeproved  by  the  prophet 
Ilananiah  for  the  Syrian  alliance,  he  set  the  lirst  example  of  the 
attempt  to  silence  the  prophets  by  persecution,  and  died  under  the 
displeasure  of  Jehovah.  His  son  Jehoshaphat  (b.c.  914)  is  one  of 
the  heroes  of  the  Jewish  monarchy,  which  now  reached  its  acme 
of  political  and  moral  greatness.  He  reformed  the  whole  civil  and 
religious  order  of  the  realm,  kept  the  subject  states  to  their  allegi- 
ance, and  attempted,  though  without  success,  to  revive  the  mari- 
time enterprises  of  Solomon  in  the  Bed  Sea  and  Indian  Ocean. 
But  all  was  perilled  by  his  alliance  with  Ahab,  which  involved 
him  in  the  defeat  at  Ramoth-Gilead,  and  brought  on  the  far  great- 
er evils  that  resulted  from  the  marriage  of  his  son  Jehoram  to  Atha- 
liah,  the  daughter  of  Ahab  and  Jezebel.  Jehoram  (b.c.  892)  paid 
the  penalty  of  his  idolatries  in  the  final  revolt  of  Edom,  which  hence- 
forth had  its  own  king,  and  at  last  imposed  one  upon  the  Jews  ; :}: 
and  after  other  disasters,  he  perished  by  a  loathsome  disease.  His 
son  Ahaziah  (b.c.  885 — 884)  was  slain  by  Jehu,  with  Jehoram  and 
Jezebel ;  and  of  his  numerous  sons,  the  infant  Joasli  alone  escaped 
the  massacre  by  Athaliah.  The  usui-pation  of  that  true  daughter 
of  Jezebel  and  her  overthrow  by  the  high  priest  Jehoiada  has  sup- 
plied a  noble  theme  to  the  tragic  poet.§  Tlie  early  years  of  Joash 
(b.c.  878)  were  made  illustrious  by  the  reforms  of  Jehoiada,  who 
restored  the  temple  worship  ;  but  his  death  left  the  king  under  the 

*  It  is  uncertain  what  king  is  represented  by  this  name,  sec  chapter  vii.  p.  126. 
-f-  See  p.  IIT. 

■\.  Herod  the  Great  was  an  Idumajan  by  origin.     The  whole  relations  between  Israel 
and  Edom  form  a  striking  fulfilment  of  the  prophecy  of  Isaac ;  Genesis  xxvii.  40. 
§  Racine's  ^</(a/ie. 


B.C.  742.]  INVASION  BY   SYRIA  AND  ISRAEL.  181 

influence  of  the  princes  of  Judah  (the  patriarchal  rulers) ;  and  that 
persecution  commenced,  in  which  the  prophet  "  Zachariah,  the 
son.  of  Barachiah,  was  slain  between  the  altar  and  the  temple." 
From  this  time  forward  we  find,  the  princes  of  Judah  opposing  the 
reforming  kings  and  the  prophets,  by  whom  they  are  unsparingly 
denounced.  In  the  latter  part  of  the  reign  of  Joash,  Judah  began 
to  suffer  from  the  invasions  of  the  Syrians.  This  king,  slain  in  his 
bed  by  two  of  his  servants,  was  succeeded  by  Amaziah  (b.c.  839), 
whose  victories  over  the  Edomites  ended  in  his  serving  their  gods, 
and  whose  rash  war  with  Joash,  king  of  Israel,  led  to  the  capture 
of  Jerusalem  and  his  own  death.  These  disasters  were  repaired 
during  the  long  reign  of  his  successor,  Uzziah,  or  Azariah  (b.c. 
810),  who  reorganised  the  army,  renewed  the  fortifications  of  Jeru- 
salem, and  armed  the  walls  with  military  engines.  He  conquered 
the  Philistines  and  the  border  Arab  tribes,  received  tribute  from 
Amnion,  and  retook  from  Edom  the  port  of  Elatli  on  the  Red  Sea. 
Amidst  the  records  of  wars,  factions,  and  idolatries,  it  is  refreshing 
to  read  of  the  care  bestowed  by  this  king  on  agriculture  and  the 
rearing  of  cattle.  He  was  also  a  zealous  reformer  of  religion  ;  but, 
elated  with  prosperity,  he  tried  to  force  his  way  into  the  Holy 
Place,  to  burn  incense,  when  he  was  smitten  with  leprosy,  that 
frightful  disease,  which  cut  off  its  victim  from  the  sanctuary,  and 
drove  him  into  seclusion  for  the  remainder  of  his  life. 

His  son  Jotham,  first  as  regent  and  then  as  king  (b.c.  758), 
carried  on  his  father's  reforms  at  home  and  victories  abroad  ;  but 
the  next  king,  Ahaz  (b.c.  74:2),  plunged  into  a  course  of  idolatry 
worse  than  that  of  Ahab.  It  was  at  the  beginning  of  his  reign 
that  the  confederacy  of  Pekah,  king  of  Israel,  and  Rezin,  king  of 
Syria,  against  Judah,  gave  occasion  to  Isaiah's  great  prophecy  of 
the  kingdom  of  Immanuel.*  In  two  campaigns  the  allies  took 
the  port  of  Elath,  defeated  Ahaz  with  immense  slaughter,  and 
carried  off  a  multitude  of  captives  to  Damascus  and  Samaria. 
Then  ensued  a  scene  which  proved  that  the  ancient  bond  of 
brotherhood  among  the  tribes  was  not  yet  completely  dissolved. 
At  the  bidding  of  a  prophet,  the  princes  of  Epliraim  compelled 
the  soldiers  to  release  their  Jewish  prisoners,  and  supplied  their 
necessities  out  of  the  spoils.  From  this  conduct  we  are  prepared 
to  understand  the  response  which  the  northern  tribes  afterwards 
made  to  the  overtures  of  Hezekiah.  Still,  the  confederates  seem 
not  to  have  abandoned  their  plan  for  the  conquest  of  Judah, 
which  was  at  the  same  time  invaded  on  the  south  and  west  by 

*  Isaiah  vii. 


182  THE   KINGDOM   OF  JUDAH.  [Chap.  VIH. 

the  Edomites  and  tlie  Philistines.  In  this  strait,  Ahaz  gatliered 
all  the  remaining  treasures  of  the  temple  and  of  the  palaces  of 
Jerusalem,  as  an  offering  to  purchase  the  aid  of  Tiglath-Pileser, 
and  thus  brought  about,  as  we  have  seen,  the  first  captivity  of  a 
large  part  of  Israel.  The  name  of  this  king  has  a  place  in  the 
history  of  science  in  connexion  with  the  "  sun-dial  of  Ahaz,''  an 
invention  probably  boiTowed  from  the  Chaldseans.  In  his  reign, 
too,  fulls  the  epoch  commonly  assigned  to  the  foundation  of 
Eome  (B.C.  753). 

Hezekiah,  the  son  of  Ahaz  (b.c.  Y24),  pursued  a  course  the 
direct  opposite  to  his  father's,  carrying  his  zeal  against  idolatry 
so  far  as  to  break  to  pieces  the  brass  serpent  of  Moses,  which  had 
long  been  an  object  of  worship.  The  temple  was  purified,  the 
courses  of  the  priests  restored,  and  the  Passover  celebrated  for 
the  first  time  since  many  ages.  The  king  was  supported  and  ani- 
mated by  the  glowing  words  of  Isaiah,  the  brightest  of  that  gal- 
axy of  prophets  who  flourished  during  the  last  two  centuries  of  the 
Jewish  monarchy,  both  in  Israel  and  in  Judah.*  The  prophet's 
influence  was  directed  to  foreign  policy  as  well  as  internal  re- 
form ;  his  only  course,  in  both  cases,  being  the  simple  one  of  reli- 
gious patriotism.  Judah  was  now  divided  between  Assyrian  and 
Egyptian  factions,  and  the  king  himself  yielded  to  a  temptation 
to  court  the  rising  power  of  Babylon  ;  but  the  pro2>het»distrib- 
utes  the  "  burthens  "  of  future  woe  impartially  among  all  the 
states  that  had  been  or  were  to  be  the  enemies  of  Israel.  I^or 
does  he  spare  the  princes  of  Judali,  who  seem  generally  to  have 
leant  to  Egypt,  and  whose  anti-religious  policy  was  matched  by 
their  oppression  of  their  poorer  brethren.  His  writings  lay  bare 
the  utter  corruption  and  selfishness  which  had  set  at  nought  both 
the  letter  and  spirit  of  the  law,  and  which  were  too  far  gone  for 
all  the  reforms  of  a  Hezekiah  or  a  Josiah.  Supported  by  such  a 
teacher,  Hezekiah  sought  to  recover  the  independence  of  Judah, 
as  the  land  of  Jehovah.  He  made  successful  war  against  the  Phil- 
istines ;  but  the  great  external  events  of  his  reign  sprang  from  his 
relations  with  Assyria  and  Egypt.  He  began  by  refusing  to  pay 
to  Shalmaneser  the  tribute  which  Tiglatli-pileser  had  received 
from  Ahaz.  The  events  that  followed  are  obscure,  from  a  diffi- 
culty in  reconciling  the  Hebrew,  Egyptian,  and  Assyrian  chronol- 
ogies.f     Sennacherib  prepared  to  punish  the  revolt,  while  the 

*  It  does  not  come  within  the  scope  of  oiu-  work  to  give  an  account  of  the  prophets 
vnd  their  writings. 

f  See  Smith's  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  Vol.  i.,  p.  326. 


B.C.  639.  REIGN  OF  JOSIAH.  183 

princes  of  Jiidah,  against  tlie  warnings  of  Isaiah,  sought  aid  from 
Egypt.  The  disunion  implied  in  this  policy  may  have  been  the 
cause  of  Hezekiah's  purchasing  the  forbearance  of  Sennacherib 
witli  all  the  sacred  treasures,  after  he  had  made  preparations  for 
resistance  ;  and  the  Assyrian  would  be  the  more  compliant  as  he 
was  now  engaged  in  a  great  war  with  Egypt.  But,  when  he  had 
taken  Ashdod,  the  key  of  the  military  route  to  Egypt,  he  turned 
his  arms  against  Judah,  and  it  was  from  before  Lachish  that  he 
sent  the  blasphemous  summons  by  Rabshakeh,  to  which  Isaiah 
replied  by  the  prophecy  of  his  destruction.  At  this  crisis  he  was 
called  away  by  the  advance  of  Tirhakah,  the  great  king  of  the 
Ethiopian  dynasty,  and  it  seems  to  have  been  in  his  camp  near 
Pelusium  that  his  army  was  swejjt  down  by  the  very  miracle  that 
Isaiah  had  predicted.  The  subsequent  ftite  of  Sennacherib  belongs 
to  the  history  of  Assyria.*  It  is  still  a  disputed  point  whether  it 
was  before  or  after  this  event  that  Ilezekiah  received  the  embassy 
from  Merodach-Baladan,  king  of  Babylon,  to  congratulate  him  on 
his  miraculous  recovery  from  sickness ;  when  the  pride  with  which 
he  displayed  his  treasures  provoked  Isaiah's  prophecy  of  the  Ba- 
bylonian captivity.  The  peaceful  remainder  of  Hezekiah's  reign 
was  occupied  in  works  of  improvement  at  Jerusalem  and  the 
other  chief  cities  of  Judah. 

The  gross  apostasy  and  bloody  persecution  of  his  son  Manas- 
seh  (b.c.  697)  were  punished  by  his  imprisonment  at  Babylon  by 
Esarhaddon,  the  son  of  Sennacherib  ;  and  Manasseh's  repentance 
was  as  signal  as  his  guilt.  His  son  Amon  (b.c.  G42),  an  idolater, 
was  slain  by  liis  servants  after  a  reign  of  only  two  years. 

The  last  independent  king  of  Judah,  Josiah  (b.c.  639),  was  the 
worthiest  successor  of  his  father  David.  Every  reader  of  the 
Scriptures  is  familiar  with  his  youthful  piety,  his  hearty  devotion 
to  the  Avork  of  religious  reformation,  in  the  course  of  which  he 
fuliilled  the  old  prophecy  against  the  idolatrous  altar  of  Jerobo- 
am, his  discovery  of  the  book  of  the  law,  and  the  solemn  fast  and 
Passover  which  followed.  These  were  but  the  last  expiring  glo- 
ries of  the  kingdom,  showing  what  it  might  have  been  if  all  its 
kings  had  been  such  as  Josiah.  One  point  in  the  position  of 
Josiah  deserves  special  notice.  He  was,  in  some  sense,  a  king 
of  Israel  as  well  as  Judah.     The  first  deportation  of  the  northern 

*  Compare  chap.  vii.  p.  128  ;  and  chap.  ix.  The  Assyrian  chronology  forbids  our 
placing  this  event  earlier  than  B.C.  700.  To  remove  the  apparent  inconsistency  with  the 
date  of  Tirhakah,  it  has  been  suggested  that  he  was  still  only  "  King  of  Ethiopia  " 
(Isaiah  xxxvii.  9),  in  alliance  with  the  petty  kings  of  Lower  Egypt. 


184  THE   KINGDOM   OF   JUDAH.  [Chap.  VHI. 

tribes  liad  not  been  so  complete  as  tlie  final  captivity  of  the  peo- 
ple around  Samaria ;  and  the  remnant  had  come  to  look  to  the 
king  of  Judah  for  encouragement  and  protection.  We  find 
them  responding  to  the  invitation  which  Ilczekiah  sent  through 
all  the  tribes,  with  the  consent  of  Hoshea,  to  keep  the  Passover 
at  Jerusalem.  After  the  extinction  of  the  kingdom  of  Israel, 
and  when  Samaria  was  occupied  only  by  a  few  scattered  settlers, 
terrified,  as  we  have  seen,  by  the  desolation  of  the  country,  the 
northern  tribes  naturally  drew  closer  to  Josiah,  and  may  have 
hoped  to  see  him  revive  the  nnited  monarchy.  Tliese  circum- 
stances hel})  US  to  understand  the  ver}'-  different  relations  of  the 
Jews  to  the  Galila3ans  and  Samaritans  after  the  return  from  the 
captivity. 

Meanwhile,  great  revolutions  were  taking  place  in  the  king- 
doms of  Assyria  and  Egypt.  After  a  temporary  recovery,  under 
Esarhaddon,  the  great  Assyrian  empire  was  fast  falling  before  the 
revolt  of  the  Medes  and  the  Babylonians ;  while  in  Egypt  the 
new  dynasty,  founded  by  Psammetichus,  aimed  at  reviving  the 
empire  of  the  old  Pharaohs,  The  expedition  of  Pharaoh  jS^echo 
to  the  Euphrates  has  already  been  I'elated.*  The  motive  usually 
assigned  for  Josiah's  opposition  to  Necho's  march  is  fidelity  to 
his  relation  as  a  tributary  of  Assyria  ;  but  we  would  rather 
ascribe  it  to  the  ardent  patriotism  which  could  not  endure  any 
invader  in  the  Holy  Land,  and  to  a  desire  to  protect  the  northern 
tribes.  But  it  was  too  late :  the  doom  of  the  monarchy  was 
sealed.  The  march  of  Necho  lay  through  the  gi-eat  plain  of  Es- 
draelon ;  and  Josiah,  heedless  of  his  warnings  to  let  him  pass 
through  peaceably,  led  forth  all  his  force  to  meet  him,  ventured 
his  person  in  the  battle  under  a  disguise,  and  was  slain  by  the 
Egyptian  archers  in  the  valley  of  Megiddo.  The  prophet  Jere- 
miah led  the  lamentations  of  the  people  over  a  fall  which  in- 
volved that  of  the  kingdom  (e.g.  608).  The  people  proclaimed 
Shallum,  one  of  Josiah's  sons  (not  the  eldest),  as  king,  under  the 
name  of  Jehoahaz  ;  but  the  Egyptian  conqueror,  on  his  return 
from  Carchemish,  deposed  him,  and  set  up  his  brother  Jehoia- 
kim  as  a  tributary  vassal  (b.  c.  608). 

"While  the  new  king  began  to  play  the  tyrant  under  the  protec- 
tion of  Egypt,  the  voice  of  Jeremiah  was  lifted  up  to  predict  the 
desolation  of  Judah  and  the  Seventy  Years'  Captivity  at  Baby- 
lon ;  and  the  fulfilment  of  his  word  was  rapidly  accomplished. 
Nineveh  was  taken,  and  the  Assyrian  monarchy  overthi'own,  by 

*  Chapter  vii.  p.  133. 


B.C.  605—586.]       THE   SUCCESSIVE   CAPTIVITIES.  185 

the  united  forces  of  the  Medes  and  Babylonians.*  The  empire 
of  Babylon  was  founded  by  ]S"abopolassar ;  and  his  son  Nebuchad- 
nezzar turned  back  the  tide  of  Egyptian  invasion  by  a  great  vic- 
toiy  over  Xecho  at  Carchemish.  Then,  having  succeeded  his 
father  on  tlie  throne,  he  drove  the  Egj^tians  out  of  Palestine, 
and  advanced  upon  Jerusalem.  The  city  was  taken  and  the  tem- 
ple plundered ;  the  king  was  taken  away  as  a  prisoner,  but  re- 
stored to  his  throne  on  the  condition  of  paying  a  large  tribute. 
The  choicest  youths  of  the  princely  houses  of  Judah  were  carried 
off  to  Babylon  as  hostages,  among  whom  were  Daniel  and  his 
three  companions  (b.c.  605).  From  this  epoch  of  the  First  Cap- 
tivity OF  Judah  we  must  reckon  the  Seventy  Years  of  the  Cap- 
tivity, to  the  first  year  of  Cyrus,  in  b.c.  536. 

Judah  was  now  nothing  more  than  a  dependency  of  Babylon, 
and  Jehoiakim  was  the  creature  of  Kebuchadnezzar.  But  the 
king  and  the  princes  of  Judah  still  dreamed  of  independence  by 
the  help  of  Egypt,  in  spite  of  the  warnings  of  Jeremiah.  His 
revolt  (in  b.c.  603)  subjected  Judaea  to  the  ravages  of  predatory 
bands  from  the  surrounding  nations,  who  carried  off  thousands  of 
captives.  A  Chaldsean  army  laid  siege  to  Jerusalem,  and  Jehoia- 
kim was  killed  in  a  sally  (b.c.  597).  His  son  Jehoiachin  f  had  only 
reigned  for  three  months  in  the  beleaguered  city,  when  Xebuchad- 
nezzar  came  to  conduct  the  siege  in  person.  Jerusalem  soon  sur- 
rendered ;  Jehoiachin  was  carried  away  to  Babylon,  with  10,000 
captives,  among  whom  were  Ezekiel  and  Mordecai,  and  few  but 
the  jjoorer  sort  of  people  were  left  behind.  Over  this  remnant 
Nebuchadnezzar  set  up  as  king,  Zedekiah,  the  youngest  son  of 
Josiah  (b.c.  597).  But  not  even  in  this  abject  state  could  the 
Jews  submit  to  the  fate  which  their  long  course  of  apostasy  had 
brought  upon  them.  Jeremiah,  who  still  remained  at  Jerusalem, 
became  engaged  in  a  constant  conflict  with  the  false  ]:)rophets, 
who  predicted  a  speedy  return  from  the  captivity,  and  his  warn- 
ings were  echoed  back  by  Ezekiel  from  the  banks  of  the  river 
Chebar.  The  latter  prophet  gives  a  description  of  the  idolatry 
and  profligacy  of  the  princes  and  priests  of  Judah,  who  remained 
at  Jerusalem,  which  is  confirmed  by  their  savage  persecution  of 
the  former.  At  length  the  first  successes  of  Pharaoh-Hophra 
(Apries)  encouraged  Zedekiah  to  renew  the  Egyptian  alliance  and 
revolt  against  Nebuchadnezzar.  The  King  of  Babylon  now  re- 
solved to  crush  these  repeated  rebellions  in  the  ruins  of  Jerusa- 

*  The  history  of  these  kingdoms  is  pursued  in  chapters  ix.  and  x. 
■j-  Also  called  Jeconlah  and  Coniah. 


186  THE  KINGDOM  OF  JUDAH.  [Chap.  VHI. 

lem.  On  liis  forming  the  siege  of  the  city,  Jeremiah  advised  an 
immediate  surrender  ;  but  the  king  and  princes  trusted  to  relief 
from  Egypt.  Pharaoh-IIoplira  did  indeed  advance  ;  and  when 
Nebuchadnezzar  drew  off  liis  forces  to  meet  him,  the  city  exulted 
as  if  the  war  were  ended.  But  the  Egyptian  king  dared  not  meet 
the  Chaldsean  army ;  the  siege  was  again  formed  ;  and  soon  Je- 
rusalem was  taken  by  storm,  and  the  city,  with  its  temple,  were 
razed  to  the  ground  by  !Nebuzaradan,  the  general  of  Nebuchad- 
nezzar.* Zedekiah,  siezed  in  the  attempt  to  escape  before  the 
final  capture,  was  brought  before  Nebuchadnezzar  at  Eiblah  in 
Hamath.  His  eyes  were  put  out,  after  he  had  seen  his  sons  killed, 
and  he  died  in  close  captivity  at  Babylon.  His  nephew  Jehoia- 
chin  was  more  fortunate.  After  a  captivity  of  thirty-seven  years  he 
was  released  from  prison  by  Evil-Merodach,  the  son  of  Nebuchad- 
nezzar (e.g.  501),  and  treated  with  royal  honours  till  his  death. 

The  whole  Jewish  nation  were  now  carried  away  as  captives 
to  Babylon,  except  a  miserable  remnant  of  the  very  poorest  peo- 
ple, M'ho  were  left  to  cultivate  the  land.  Gedaliah  was  appointed 
as  their  governor  ;  and  the  prophet  Jeremiah  remained  with  him ; 
the  seat  of  government  being  the  fortress  of  Mizpeh.  But  even 
this  wretched  fragment  of  the  once  favoured  nation  fell  a  prey  to 
faction.  Shemaiah,  a  member  of  the  royal  house,  killed  Gedaliah 
treacherously  at  a  feast,  and  tried  to  carry  off  the  renmant  of  the 
peoj)le  into  slavery  to  the  Ammonites.  His  scheme  was  frustrated 
by  Johanan,  an  officer  of  Gedaliah,  who  fled  to  Egypt  with  the 
greater  number  of  the  people,  including  Jeremiah  and  Baruch. 
The  few  who  remained,  numbering  only  74:5,  were  carried  away 
to  Babylon  by  Nebuzaradan  four  years  later  ;  and  the  land  was 
left  to  entire  desolation,  except  for  a  few  scattered  settlers  from 
the  nomad  tribes  of  the  desert. 

This  very  desolation,  however,  formed  in  one  respect  a  favour- 
able contrast  to  the  condition  of  the  former  land  of  the  Ten 
Tribes.  Judaea  was  not  re-peopled  by  heathen  settlers,  who 
might  have  disputed  its  possession  with  the  people  on  their  own 
return,  or  have  corrupted  both  their  race  and  their  religion  by 
their  intermixture.  The  land  of  Judah,  marked  out  to  the  eye 
of  man  as  the  special  object  of  Divine  judgment,  was  in  tnith 
preserved  by  the  care  of  God,  with  all  the  monuments  of  former 
idolatries  swept  from  its  surface,  to  be  again  the  country  of  His 

*  Eespecting  the  slightly  different  dates  of  this  event,  see  the  note  on  Scripture  Chro- 
nology, p.  10.  Ussher  assigns  it  to  B.C.  588  ;  but  the  true  date  is  now  pretty  well  fixed 
at  B.C.  586.  From  the  dates  of  months  and  days  given  in  the  Scripture  narrative,  and 
Btill  observed  as  fasts  by  the  Jews,  we  know  that  it  took  place  about  July  or  August. 


B.C.  586—536.]     CONDITION  OF   THE   CAPTIVE  JEWS.  187 

people,  when  tliey  were  purified  by  the  discipline  of  captivity 
from  their  proneness  to  those  idolatries.  "  The  land  kept  her 
sabbaths,"  in  compensation  for  the  sabbatic  years  of  which  it  had 
been  deprived  by  the  cupidity  of  its  ownei's  ;  and  it  was  restored 
to  them,  renovated  by  its  rest,  as  they  were  renovated  by  the 
ordeal  of  their  captivity. 

For  all  we  know  of  the  history  of  the  captives  proves  that  the 
interval  was  such  an  ordeal.  Like  the  forty  years'  wandering  in 
the  wilderness,  it  effectually  separated  the  old  generation,  who 
had  shared  ir  the  corruptions  of  the  dying  monarchy,  fi'oni  the 
new  one  which  began  a  fresh  life  with  their  return.  The  restorrd 
nation  had  many  faults,  so  many  and  great  as  again  to  involve 
their  rejection ;  but  they  never  relapsed  into  idolatry.  Of  their 
condition  during  the  Captivity  we  have  little  information ;  but 
the  elevation  of  Daniel  and  his  comrades  at  the  court  of  Babylon, 
and  the  impression  made  upon  I^ebuchadnezzar  by  the  decisive 
proofs  of  Jehovah's  power,  must  have  secured  for  the  Jews  a 
high  degree  of  consideration.  Jeremiah's  command  for  them  to 
build  houses  and  buy  lands  implies  their  possession,  not  only  of 
personal  liberty,  but  also  of  civil  rights.  Their  later  history 
proves  that  they  preserved  the  records  of  their  genealogies ;  and 
there  are  clear  indications  of  some  kind  of  internal  government 
under  their  patriarchal  princes.  Some  mention  is  made  of  a  sort 
of  head,  called  the  Prince  of  the  Captivity,  but  the  existence 
of  such  an  officer  is  by  no  means  certain.  At  all  events,  an 
organization  was  maintained,  which  made  it  not  difficult  to  gather 
together  such  of  them  as  were  willing  to  obey  the  edict  of 
Cyrus  for  their  return  to  their  own  country  (b.c.  536).  The  fact, 
that  their  obedience  to  that  edict  was  voluntary,  was  of  itself  a 
means  of  separation  between  the  pious  Jews,  who  had  preserved 
their  faith  in  the  promises  of  their  restoration,  from  those  who  had_ 
lapsed  into  the  idolatries  of  the  provinces  in  which  they  were 
settled ;  and  it  seems  probable  that  nearly  all  the  remnant  of  the 
Ten  Tribes  who  had  not  thus  apostatized,  joined  with  the  people  of 
Judah  in  their  return  to  Palestine.  As  to  the  rest,  their  fate,  as 
well  as  the  ultimate  destiny  of  their  brethren,  scattered  abroad 
after  the  last  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  does  not  belong  to  the 
historian  to  discuss. 

We  have  now  to  look  back  upon  the  history  of  those  great 
monarchies  which  succeeded  each  other  on  the  banks  of  the  Tigris 
and  Euphrates,  from  before  the  n>igration-  of  Abraham  to  the  full 
establishment  of  the  Persian  Empire. 


CHAPTEH  IX. 


THE  CHALDEAN,  ASSYRIAN,  AND  BABYLONIAN  EMPIRES. 


"  The  Eastern  front  was  fjlorious  to  be  behold, 
With  diamond  Hamint;  and  barbaric  gold  ; 
There  Ninus  shone,  wVio  spread  the  Assyrian  fame, 
And  the  great  founder  of  the  Persian  name. 
The  sage  Chaldivans  robed  in  white  appeared 
And  Brachmans  deep  in  desert  woods  revered." 

Pope — Temple  of  Fame. 

KUrinKS  ON  THE  EUPHRATES  AXD  TIGRIS — DESCRIPTION  OF  MESOPOTAMIA — THE  GREAT  PLAIN  Ot 
CHALD^A — ITS  BOUNDARIES  AND  EXTENT — ITS  PHYSICAL  CHARACTER— INUNDATIONS  AND 
CANALS — CLIMATE — NATURAL  PRODUCTS — ANIMALS — MINERALS — BRICK-MAKING — BIBLICAL 
HISTORY  OF  CHALD.EA — BABEL — NIMROD — THE  CHALDEAN  RACE — THEIR  CUSHITE  ORIGIN 
AND  LANGUAGE — MEANINGS  OF  THE  CHALD.-EAN  NAME — FOR  A  TRIBE,  A  NATION,  AND  A  CASTE 
—TRACES  OF  A  STILL  EARLIER  TURANIAN  POPULATION — THE  DYNASTIES  OF  BEROSUS — ASTRO- 
NOMICAL   RECORDS    CONTEMPORARY  WITH   THE    BEGINNING    OF  THE  MONARCHY — ITS   EPOCH 

DYNASTY  OF  NIMROD— TWO  DIVISIONS  OF  CHALDJEA,  EACH  WITH  ITS  TETRAPOLIS — CITIES 
SACRED  TO  THE  HEAVENLY'  BODIES— THE  CHALDJEAN  TEMPLE-TOWERS — THEIR  DESIGN,  FORM, 
MATERIALS,  AND    RUINS — CUNEIFORM   INSCRIPTIONS— STAGES    IN  THE    INVENTION  OP  WRITING 

INTERPRETATION   OF   THE   INSCRIPTIONS — HISTORY'  OF  THE  EARLIER  CHALD.SIAN  DY'NASTY 

NIMROD,  THE  FOUNDER — URCKH,  THE  BUILDER,  THE  FIRST  KING  NAMED  ON  THE  INSCRIPTIONS 

LATER     CHALD.EAN     DYNASTY^CHEDORLAOMER,     THE    CONQUEROR — SEMITIC     MIGRATIONS, 

ABRAHAM  AND  THE  PHCENICIANS — THE  "  FOUR  NATIONS"  OF  CHALD^EA— CHECK  TO  CHAL- 
DEAN CONQUESTS — OVERTHROW  OF  THE  MONARCHY  BY  THE  ARABS — GROWTH  OF  SEMITIC 
INFLUENCE — THE   CHALD.EAN  CASTE    AND    LEARNING  SURVIVE — CHALDEAN  ART    AND   SCIENCE 

■ — ARCHITECTURE,    TEMPLES,    HOUSES,    AND    TOMBS — POTTERY — IMPLEMENTS — METAL-WORK 

TEXTILE    FABRICS — ARITHMETIC   AND    ASTRONOMY — WEIGHTS    AND  MEASURES — THE  ASSYRIAN 

EMPIRE GREEK  TRADITIONS THE  UPPER  DYNASTY — TIGLATH-PILESER  I. — SARDANAPALUS 

SHALMANESER  I. — THE  BLACK  OBELISK — PUL — SEMIRAMIS — THE  LOWER  DYNASTY — TIGLATH- 
PILESER  II. — SHALMANESER  II. — SARGON — CONQUEST  OP  MEDIA — SENNACHERIB — ESARHAD- 
DO.V — BABYLON  SUBJECT  TO  ASSYRIA — THE  SARDANAPALUS  OF  THE  GREEKS — FALL  OP 
KINEVEH — LATER  BABYLONIAN  EMPIRE — NABONASSAR  AND  SEMIRAMIS — MERODACH-BALADAN 
— ESARHADDON — NABOPOLASSAR — WARS  WITH  LYDIA  AND  EGYPT — NEBUCHADNEZZAR — EVIL- 
MERODACH  AND  HIS  SUCCESSORS — NABONADIUS — LEAGUE  AGAINST  PERSIA — BELSHAZZAR — 
FALL  OF  BABYLON — ITS  LATER  HISTORY. 

Almost  at  every  step  in  the  preceding  narrative,  we  liave  liad 
to  refer  to  the  great  empires  established  from  the  earliest  times 
in  the  valley  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates.  Of  the  six  great 
eastern  monarchies — for  that  of  David  and  Solomon  mnst  not 
be  excluded  from  the  reckoning — four  ruled  successively  in  this 
valley, — the  Chaldean,  Assyrian,  Babylonian,  and  Medo-Persian. 
In  the  absence  of  a  trustworthy  chronology,  it  cannot  be  posi- 
tively decided  whether  the  Euphrates  or  the  Nile  was  the  earlier 
seat  of  civilization  and  royal  power.  "We  have  given  the  pre- 
cedence to  Egypt,  as  having  the  earliest  historic  records.  The 
order  of  the  Scriptm-e  narrative,  and  proximity  to  the  primitive 


THE   TIGRIS  AND  EUPHRATES.  189 

abode  of  our  race,  concur  in  claiming  an  antiquity  little,  if  any, 
lower  for  tlie  most  ancient  Babylonian,  otherwise  called  the  Chal- 
dsean  monarchy. 

Two  mountain  ranges,  diyerging  ft'om  the  Armenian  highlands, 
shut  in  the  region  of  which  we  haye  now  to  speak.  One  chain, 
or  rather  system  of  parallel  chains,  runs  south  and  south-east 
past  the  head  of  the  Pei*sian  Gulf,  forming  the  mountains  of  Ktir- 
dintan  and  Lvristan,  while  the  ridges  of  Amanus  and  Lebanon 
extend  like  another  wall  on  the  west.  A  less  marked  boundary 
is  formed  on  the  south  by  the  table-land  of  the  Ai'abian  peninsiila. 
The  region  enclosed  within  these  limits  lies  just  in  the  centre 
of  that  great  desert  zone  which  we  have  described  as  extending 
from  the  western  coast  of  Africa  almost  to  the  north-eastern  shores 
of  Asia,  and  at  the  yery  point  where  that  zone  passes  from  a 
general  elevation  little  above  that  of  the  ocean,  into  a  high  table- 
land. The  highlands  on  the  north  and  east,  watered  by  many 
streams,  afford  abundant  pastures,  but  the  sandy  wastes  of  Arabia 
are  prolonged  upwards  from  the  south,  over  the  great  Syrian 
Desert,  which  would  extend  to  the  very  foot  of  the  highlands, 
but  for  the  fertilizing  streams  of  the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris. 

These  two  great  rivers  take  their  rise  in-- Armenia,  on  opposite 
sides  of  Mount  Kiphates,  and  unite  near  the  head  of  the  Persian 
Gulf,  which  receives  their  waters,  after  the  Euphrates  has  flowed 
about  1,780  miles,  and  the  Tigris,  1,146.  But  their  earlier  courses 
are  quite  divergent.  The  Tigris,  having  its  sources  on  the  south 
of  Niphates,  flows  at  first  towards  the  east,*  parallel  to  that  chain, 
in  the  valley  between  it  and  Mount  Masius,  whence  emerging  it 
pursues  its  course  to  the  south-east,  with  but  few  bendings,  along 
the  feet  of  the  mountains  of  Kurdistan.  The  Euphrates,  rising  on 
the  north  side  of  Niphates,  also  flows  parallel  to  its  chain,  but 
westward,  as  if  seeking  an  outlet  in  the  MediteiTanean ;  but,  after 
a  circuitous  sweep  through  the  mountains,  it  finally  enters,  at  the 
parallel  of  36°  N.  lat.,  on  the  south-eastern  course  which  brings  it 
to  a  confluence  with  the  Tigris.  This  part  of  its  stream  lies  for  a 
long  distance  through  the  Arabian  Desert,  and  for  800  miles 
below  the  confluence  of  the  Khabour  it  does  not  receive  a  single 
tributary.  Its  w^aters  dwindle,  passing  off  either  to  be  lost  in  the 
desert,  or  to  swell  the  volume  of  the  Tigris,  already  enriched  by 
numerous  great  tributaries  from  the  eastern  mountains.  Much  of 
this  borrowed  water  afterwards  flows  back  into  the  Euphrates  by 

*  It  is  undoubtedly  the  Hiddekel  of  Paradise,  "  which  goeth  eastwards  towards 
Assyria."     Genesis  ii.  14. 


190     CHALDiEAN  OR  OLD  BABYLONIAN  MONARCHY.    [Chap.  JX. 

the  Shut-el-IIie,  and  at  Kornali  tlie  two  rivers  unite  in  tlie  Shat- 
el-Arab. 

These  two  great  rivers  have  always  given  a  name  to  the  country 
through  whicli  they  flow — the  Aram-Naharaim  (Highland  of  the 
two  rivers)  of  the  Semitic  tongues,  the  Mesopotamia  of  the  Greeks, 
and  the  Al-Jezireh  (the  Island)  of  the  modern  Arabs.  But  these 
names  require  a  more  exact  definition,  especially  in  their  relation 
to  those  of  Cliakhea,  Babylonia,  and  Assyria.  There  is  a  clearly- 
marked  physical  division  of  the  district  watered  by  the  rivers 
into  two  regions.  The  northern  part,  descending  from  the  moun- 
tains, in  a  steppe  or  undulating  plain,  of  the  secondary  geological 
formation,  bounded  by  a  line  drawn  diagonally  across  the  34th 
parallel  of  latitude,  nearly  through  Hit  on  the  Euphrates  and 
Tekrit  on  the  Tigris.  The  subsidence  to  the  dead  level  of  the  ter- 
tiary alluvium  is  here  as  distinct  and  sudden  as  that  from  the 
slightly  elevated  chalk  district  of  Cambridgeshire  to  the  level  of 
the  fens.  And  this  is  the  historical  as  well  as  the  natm*al  division 
between  Uj)per  and  Lower  Mesopotamia.  The  former  country  cor- 
responds very  nearly  to  Assyria  in  the  wider  sense ;  but  the  original 
land  of  Asshur  lay  along  the  upper  course  of  the  Tigris,  while  the 
western  part,  encircled  by  the  great  bend  of  the  Euplirates,  was 
the  land  of  Padan-Aram,  that  is,  the  High  Plain.  The  whole 
forms  a  slightly  elevated  plain,  about  300  miles  in  breadth,  sub- 
divided by  the  limestone  range  of  the  Sinjar  hills,  above  36°  'N. 
latitude,  between  which  and  Mount  Masius  it  is  well  watered ;  but 
below  this  range  it  is  nearly  desert,  except  in  winter.  In  ancient 
times,  however,  a  system  of  artificial  irrigation  enabled  it  to  sup- 
port its  numerous  inhabitants. 

This  country  w^as  the  seat  of  the  great  Assyrian  Empire.  But 
another  monarchy,  the  old  Babylonian,  or  Chaldsean,*  was  esta- 
blished mucli  earlier  in  the  southern  alluvial  plain.  It  was 
bounded  on  tlie  north  by  the  natural  division,  already  described, 
between  the  alluvial  and  upper  plains ;  on  the  west  and  south 
by  the  Arabian  Desert,  whose  tertiary  sands  and  gravel  reach 
generally  within  twenty  or  thirty  miles  of  the  Euplirates,  but 
sometimes  cross  it,  and  by  the  head  of  the  Persian  Gulf; 
and  on  the  east  by  the  Tigris,  which  divides  it  from  the  rich 
plain  and  foot-hills  of  Elim  or  Susiana.  On  this  side,  and  on 
the  north,  it  had  powerful  and  formidable  neighbours ;  on  the 
west  the  desert  was  only  peopled  by  a  few  scattered  tribes  of 
Bedouins,  who  might,  however,  as  we  shall  see,  prove  no  less 

*  The  reason  for  this  appellation  will  be  given  presently. 


THE   GREAT  PLAIN   OF   CHALD^A.  191 

dangerous.  The  waters  of  tlie  Persian  Gulf,  slieltered  by  land 
on  eacli  side,  opened  up  the  commerce  of  the  whole  Indian  Ocean, 
which  the  navigable  courses  of  the  great  rivers  carried  up  to 
the  very  feet  of  the  northern  mountains.  It  must  be  remembered 
that  the  sea  anciently  penetrated  much  deeper  than  its  present 
limits.  Chaldsea,  like  Egypt,  lying  in  the  rainless  part  of  the 
great  desert  zone,  is  "the  gift  of  its  rivers,"  whose  alluvial 
deposits  are  said  to  advance  the  coast  line  one  mile  in  from 
thirty  to  seventy  years.  It  is  subject  to  inundations,  though 
less  regular  and  important  than  that  of  the  Nile,  and  the  waters 
require  more  careful  distribution.  The  neglect  of  the  proper 
works  at  the  present  day  allows  the  flood  of  the  Euphrates,  which 
is  the  greater  of  the  two,  to  escape  for  the  most  part  westward 
into  the  desert,  where  it  only  forms  pestilential  swamps.  The 
sands  of  the  desert  are  constantly  gaining  on  the  cultivable  land 
between  the  rivers.  In  ancient  times  a  great  canal  was  cut 
from  Hit  to  the  Persian  Gulf  along  the  edge  of  the  desert, 
regulating  the  inundation,  and  fitting  a  wide  tract  on  the  right 
bank  of  the  river  for  cultivation.  A  smaller  canal  (the  Palla- 
copas  of  Arrian)  branched  ofi*  south  of  Sepharvaim,  to  supply  the 
great  artificial  lake  near  Borsippa,  from  which  the  gardens  of 
Babylon  were  irrigated.  The  whole  district  between  the  two 
rivers  was  intersected  by  canals,  the  chief  of  which  were  three 
that  drew  off  the  water  of  the  Euphrates  into  the  Tigris,  above 
Babylon,  The  inundation  of  the  Tigris  is  briefer  and  more  regular. 
At  present  the  plain  extends  about  400  miles  along  the  rivers, 
and  about  100  miles  in  width.  In  the  earliest  age  of  history  the 
Persian  Gulf  probably  reached  120  or  130  miles  further  inland ; 
and  a  corresponding  deduction  must  be  made  from  the  size  of  the 
country,  the  ancient  area  of  which  is  calculated  at  about  23,000 
square  miles — about  equal  to  ancient  Greece  with  its  islands, 
to  Denmark,  or  to  the  similarly  formed  country  of  Holland. 
This  vast  level  plain  was  destitute  of  all  striking  natural  fea- 
tures, except  that  unbroken  horizon  which  is  the  one  charm  of  flat 
countries.  Such  a  surface  is  well  fitted  for  the  display  of  those 
gigantic  piles  of  architecture  by  which  the  race  of  Ham  delighted 
to  supply  the  lack  of  nature's  works,  and  which  still  diversify  the 
plain  with  the  mounds  that  hide  their  ruins.  The  only  other 
interruptions  to  the  view  are  a  few  sand-hills,  and  the  embank- 
ments along  the  rivers  and  canals ;  and  the  surface  of  the  ground 
is  merely  varied  by  the  different  colours  of  the  cultivated  fields  near 
the  rivers  and  canals,  and  i»f  the  arid  tracts  beyond  their  reach. 


193      CHALDiEAN  OR  OLD  BABYLONIAN  MONARCHY.      [Chap.  IX. 

The  summer,  wliicli  sets  in  about  May,  is  intensely  liot;  and 
tlie  moisture  of  the  climate  makes  the  heat  most  oppressive.  The 
winter  is  mild,  witli  rarely  a  touch  of  frost.  All  ancient  writers 
celebrate  the  unsuq^assed  fertility  of  Chaldaea ;  and  modern  tra- 
vellers still  attest  the  natural  capacities  of  the  region.  This 
is  tlie  only  country  in  wliich  wheat  is  known  to  be  indigenous. 
Other  cereals  are  plentiful,  and  groves  of  the  magnificent  date- 
palm  rise  like  islands  amidst  the  seas  of  com,  and  fringe  the  banks 
of  the  rivers.  The  vine  and  other  fruits  abound.  The  enormous 
reeds  of  the  rivers  and  marshes  were  used,  as  the  monuments  show, 
for  houses  and  for  boats.  The  animals  of  Mesopotamia  are  made 
familiar  to  us  by  the  Hebrew  prophets,  and  by  the  hunting  scenes 
in  wliich  the  monuments  exhibit  the  kings  as  constantly  engaged. 
The  desolation  of  the  country  has  of  course  greatly  multiplied  tlie 
noble  lion,  with  the  lesser  wild  beasts  and  birds  of  prey.  Nearly 
every  mound  that  marks  the  site  of  a  ruined  city  verities  the 
prophetic  descriptions  of  the  desolation  of  Babylon.  Domestic 
animals  abound ;  and,  in  the  decline  of  agriculture,  the  flocks 
and  herds  are  the  chief  wealth  of  the  people,  who  have  lallen  back 
into  the  nomad  state.  The  rivers  teem  with  fish,  and  the  monu- 
ments constantly  represent  great  gardens  with  fish-ponds.  Under 
the  Persian  Empire  one-third  of  the  whole  royal  revenue  was 
drawn  from  Babylonia. 

As  the  tertiary  country,  Lower  Mesopotamia  is  almost  destitute 
of  rocks  and  minerals ;  and  yet  no  people  built  on  a  vaster  scale. 
Choice  stones,  as  marbles,  agate,  and  alabaster,  were  obtained  in 
small  pieces  to  ornament  the  temples.  Limestone  was  brought  down 
the  rivers  from  Upper  Mesopotamia,  but  in  no  great  quantities. 
Its  want  was  supplied  by  bricks,  for  which  the  alluvial  soil  fur- 
nished the  best  materials.  The  fierce  sun  hardened  them  enough 
for  ordinary  use,  and  the  kiln  made  them  as  durable  as  granite. 
Various  kinds  of  cement  were  furnished  by  the  calcareous  stones 
of  the  Arabian  Desert,  by  the  slimy  mud  of  the  soil,  and  especially 
by  the  bitumen  which  is  the  chief  mineral  product  of  the  land. 
The  neighbourhood  of  Hit  has  always  been  famed  for  its  springs 
of  bitumen,  naphtha,  and  petroleum.  These  were  probably  the 
materials  with  which  the  Babel  builders  wrought. 

Such  was  the  country  of  which  we  have  the  earliest  records  in 
the  Book  of  Genesis.  The  two  leading  facts  are  the  erection  of 
the  city  and  citadel  of  Babel,  as  a  great  centre  of  union,  by  a  people 
who  journeyed  eastward,  apparently  from  the  primeval  seats  of  the 
human  race ;  and  the  establishment,  in  the  same  regions,  by  the 


THE   CHALDEAN  RACE.  193 

Cushite  conqueror  Nimrod,  of  a  kingdom,  whose  first  seat  was 
tlie  tetrapolis  of  Babel,  Erech,  Accad,  and  Calneli.  Tlie  Biblical 
account,  M'hicli  makes  Nimrod  a  son  of  Cush,  and  consequently 
the  ruling  race,  at  least  in  his  kingdom,  a  Cushite  and  therefore 
Hamite  people,  is  confirmed  by  the  best  records  of  history  and 
by  modern  discovery.  This  is  the  race  to  which  the  most  recent 
historians  apply  the  name  of  Chaldgean. 

Till  lately,  indeed,  the  general  opinion  has  identified  the  Chal- 
d^ean  with  the  Semitic  race.*  The  aflinity  between  the  later 
Babylonian  and  the  Hebrew  tongues  is  often  cimsidered  as  decisive 
of  the  question  ;  but  there  is  ample  evidence  that  the  Babylonian 
language  had  passed  through  a  great  change  since  the  time  of  the 
early  Chaldsean  monarcliy.  The  same  evidence  disposes  of  the 
opinion,  handed  down  from  Herodotus,  that  the  Babylonians  were, 
from  the  first,  of  the  same  stock  as  the  Assyrians,  who  were  Semitic. 
The  native  historian,  Berosus,  in  whose  fragments  we  have  rem- 
nants of  records  of  unknown  antiquity,  clearly  distinguishes  the 
Babylonians  from  the  Assyrians ;  and  in  this  he  is  followed  by 
several  classical  writers.  The  traditions  preserved  by  the  Greek 
poets,  from  Homer  downwards,  concerning  an  eastern  as  well  as 
a  western  nation  of  Ethiopians,  and  particularly  those  regarding 
Meranon,  can  only  be  explained  by  the  difiTusion  of  the  Cushite 
race  over  the  South  of  Asia  as  well  as  Africa.  There  are  Arme- 
nian traditions  to  the  same  effect ;  and  the  memory  of  the  Cushite 
occupation  seems  to  be  preserved  by  certain  geographical  names. 
But  the  question  may  now  be  viewed  as  decided  by  cuneiform  in- 
scrij)tions  lately  discovered  in  Lower  Mesopotamia,  the  language 
of  which  is  clearly  Hamitic,  akin  to  that  of  the  Gallas  of  Ethiopia. 

The  name  ChaldjBan,  applied  to  this  Cushite  race,  is  itself  of 
obscure  origin.  The  Hebrew  name,  so  translated  in  our  version 
of  the  Bible  (following  the  LXX),  is  a  different  word  of  doubtful 
etymology — Chasdim  ;  but  it  seems  clearly  equivalent  to  the  na- 
tive Kaldi.  The  name  is  used  in  three  different  senses.  First,  as 
a  tribe,  we  read  of  the  Chaldsean  robbers,  who,  like  the  Sabseans, 
fell  upon  Job's  cattle.  As  a  nation,  they  are  the  people  who  had 
their  capital  at  Babylon,  in  the  land  of  Shinar.f  But,  besides  these 
two  ethnic  senses,  the  Chaldseans  at  the  court  of  Nebuchadnezzar 
were  a  priestly  caste,  who  are  classed  with  the  astrologers  and 

*  The  language  called  Chaldee  is  undoubtedly  Semitic ;  but  its  appellation  seems 
to  be  a  misnomer.  It  belongs  rather  to  the  Western  than  the  Eastern  Aramsean  dialect, 
and  is,  in  fact,  less  nearly  related  to  the  Hebrew  than  is  the  Babylonian  of  the  time  of 
the  Captivity. 

\  This,  the  original  Scripture  name  of  Babylonia,  is  also  the  only  one  used  for  the 
country  in  the  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  inscriptions. 
VOL.  I. — 13 


194    CHALDEAN   OR  OLD   BABYLONIAN  MONARCHY.    [Chap.  IX. 

magicians,  liad  a  learning  and  language  of  their  own,  and  formed 
a  sort  of  colleges.  Iliose  who  acquired  their  learning,  and  were 
admitted  into  their  body,  were  called  Chaldseans,  quite  irrespec- 
tive of  their  race  ;  and  thus  Daniel  hecame  the  master  of  the  Chal- 
dseans.  That  such  a  body  would  retain  the  ancient  language,  as  a 
sacred  tongue,  after  it  had  been  supplanted  in  common  use  by  the 
later  Semitic  dialect,  is  in  accordance  w^ith  probability  and  ana- 
logy ;  and  this  view  seems  to  explain  the  various  uses  of  the 
name.  Originally  one  of  the  Cushite  tribes  who  settled  in  Lower 
Mesopotamia,  the  Kaldi,  Kaldai,  or  Chaldseans,  gave  their  name 
to  the  Cushite  monarchy,  whose  people  made  great  advances  in 
art  and  science.  Then,  as  the  nation  became  Semitized,  chiefly  by 
Assyrian  influence,  their  old  learning,  w^rapped  up  in  the  old  lan- 
guage, became  the  proijerty  of  a  class,  who  enjoyed  high  influence 
with  the  people,  and  favour  at  the  court — the  more  so  as  the  Baby- 
lonian kings,  from  Nabopolassar,  seem  to  have  been  of  the  Chal- 
da^an  race.  Lastly,  nothing  could  be  more  natural  than  that  the 
Jewish  writers  should  apply  the  name  of  this  high  class,  which  was 
also  the  name  of  the  old  monarchy,  to  the  existing  people,  though 
the  "Chaldsean  "  subjects  of  Nebuchadnezzar  were  of  a  different 
race  from  the  ancient  people.  Under  the  later  Babylonian  tings, 
and  probably  under  their  Assyrian  predecessors,  the  language  of 
learning  and  religion  seems  to  have  been  the  old  Chaldsean,  while 
that  of  civil  proceedings  was  Semitic.  The  question  still  remains 
— whence  the  Chaldseans  of  Babylonia  originally  came. 

There  is  a  native  historian,  Berosus,  who  occupies  a  place 
similar  to  that  of  Manetho  in  Egyptian  history.  He  was  a  priest 
of  Belus  at  Babylon  in  the  reign  of  Antiochus  IL  (b.c.  261-246). 
From  the  archives  in  the  temple  of  the  god,  he  compiled  in  Greek 
a  "  History  of  Babylon  or  Chaldsea,"  of  whicli,  like  the  work  of 
Manetho,  only  some  fragments  are  preserved  by  Josephus,  Euse- 
bius,  and  other  clironographcrs  and  fathers.  The  authenticity  of 
his  statements  is  open  to  objections  similar  to  those  urged  against 
Manetho.  His  early  history  is  entirely  mythical ;  but,  as  we 
come  down  to  periods  for  which  other  evidence  exists,  we  find  it 
to  a  great  extent  confirmator}^  of  Berosus.  This  is  especially  the 
case  with  the  cuneiform  inscriptions. 

In  his  mythical  history,  Berosus  goes  back  to  the  Creation, 
peopling  the  slime  of  Chaos  Avith  creatures  whose  monstrous  forms 
were  borrowed  from  the  pictures  on  the  wall  of  the  Babylonian 
temples.  The  Chaos  is  destroyed  by  Bel,  the  great  deity  who 
occupies  the  same  place  as  Jove  in  the  Greek  mythology,  the  god 
of  light  and  air.     He  created  the  sun,  the  moon,  and  the  five 


THE  MYTHICAL  PERIOD.  195 

planets,  and  ordered  the  gods  to  people  the  earth.  To  these  suc- 
ceeded a  savage  race,  till  Oannes,  a  being  with  the  upper  part  of 
a  man  and  the  lower  part  of  a  fish,  coming  up  out  of  the  Indian 
Sea,  revealed  to  them  the  principles  of  law  and  science,  and  taught 
them  to  build  cities  and  temples."  The  state  thus  established 
w^as  governed  by  seven  rulers  for  twelve  sars  (43,200  years),  dur- 
ing which  period  six  more  "  Fish-Men  "  came  up  from  the  sea, 
and  taught  the  learning  which  was  embodied  in  the  Seven  Sacred 
Books.  Three  more  rulers  fill  up  the  antediluvian  cycle  of  432,000 
years.f 

The  god  Bel,  who  was  himself  the  last  of  these  ten  antediluvian 
rulers,  warned  Xisuthrus  of  the  destruction  of  all  living  beings  by 
a  deluge,  the  story  of  which  most  strikingly  resembles  that  of  the 
Noachic  Flood.  On  coming  out  of  the  ark,  Xisuthrus  dug  up  the 
Seven  Sacred  Books  which  he  had  buried  at  Sepharvaim  (Sippara, 
the  City  of  the  Sun),  repeopled  the  land,  and  fixed  the  capital 
again  at  Babylon,  where  eighty-six  demigods  reigned  for  34,080 
years,  a  period  intended,  as  we  shall  see  presently,  to  make  up 
with  the  following  dynasties,  a  complete  cycle  of  ten  sai'S  or 
36,000  years.  Tliese  eighty-six  demigods  form  the  First  Dynasty 
of  Berosus,  who  expressly  calls  them  Chaldoeans. 

Thus  far  the  account  is  unmistakeably  mythical ;  but,  as  we 
had  occasion  to  observe  in  the  case  of  Egypt,  a  mythical  period 
does  not  necessarily  exclude  the  element  of  true  tradition  ;  only 
it  is  impossible  to  separate  the  two. 

After  this  first  mythical  dynasty  of  eighty-six  kings,  Berosus 
assigns  224  years  to  a  dynasty  of  eight  Median  kings,  who  con- 
quered Babylon,  and  expelled  the  earlier  Chaldaean  dynasty. 
Granting  that  this  tradition  represents  some  historical  fact,  it  by 
no  means  follows  that  these  Medians  were  of  the  Aryan  race 
familiar  to  us  by  that  name,  but  only  that  they  were  the  earliest 
known  inhabitants  of  the  country  afterwards  called  Media.  ISTow, 
there  is  a  vast  mass  of  evidence  pointing  to  an  early  population  of 
Western  Asia  by  a  race  kindred,  in  many  respects,  to  that  Avhich 
we  no\v'  call  Turanian.     Such  a  race  certainly  possessed  the  high- 

*  This  Fish-Man  appears  again  in  the  Dagon  of  the  Philistines,  with  whom  is 
associated  a  goddess,  Derceto.  Besides  the  constant  appearance  of  the  image  in  the 
Babylonian  sculptures,  the  name  of  Dagon  has  been  discovered  on  the  monuments; 
and  tradition  made  Scmiramis  the  daughter  of  Derceto. 

f  In  the  Babylonian  system  of  notation  the  numbers  6  and  10  were  employed  alter 
nately.  Time  was  measured  ordinarily  by  the  soss,  the  ner,  and  the  sar — the  soss  being 
(10  X  6  =)  60  years,  the  ner  (60  x  10=)  600  years,  and  the  sar  (600  x  6  =)  3600 
years.  The  next  term  in  this  series  would  evidently  be  (3600  x  10  =)  36,000  years, 
and  the  term  following  (36,000  x  6  =)  216,000.  Berosus'  antediluvian  cycle  consists 
of  432,000,  or  two  such  neriods. 


196    CHALDEAN  OR  OLD  BABYLONIAN  MONARCHY.    [Cn.vp.  IX. 


liiiids  of  Elam,  between  Lower  Mesopotamia  and  the  tableland  of 
Iran,  the  ancient  Media;  and  its  traces  have  been  found  in  Chal- 
dsea  itself,  on  the  monuments  whose  records  have  been  recently 
deciphered.  There  was,  too,  an  universal  tradition  of  an  occupa- 
tion of  Western  Asia  by  the  Scythians,  that  is,  the  Turanian  race.* 
This  tradition,  as  we  have  argued  in  a  former  chapter,  seems  to 
point  to  a  period  when  the  demarcations  between  races  and 
languages  were  hardly  yet  established.  The  same  consideration 
may  help  to  explain  the  tact  that  we  find  Aryan  as  well  as  Tura- 
nian forms  in  the  earliest  ChakLiean  inscriptions.  We  do  not, 
however,  exclude  the  prol)ability  that  there  was  also  a  positive 
intermixture  of  the  Turanian  and  Aryan  races  as  foreign  elements 
in  the  population  of  Chaldaia. 

The  general  conclusion  from  the  whole  evidence  seems  to  be, 
that  the  Median  dynasty  of  Berosus  were  a  Turanian  or  mixed 
Scytho-Aryan  race,  whose  religion  was  an  elemental  worship,  and 
that  these  were  succeeded  by  a  native  Chaldsean  or  Cushite  race, 
who  practised  the  worship  of  the  heavenly  bodies.  Their  religion, 
combined  with  the  facilities  afforded  by  their  climate  and  their 
level  horizon,  led  them  from  the  earliest  times  to  the  study  of  as- 
tronomy, in  which  they  made  great  progress.  When  Alexander  the 
Great  took  possession  of  Babylon,  Callisthenes  was  able  to  send  to 
Aristotle  a  series  of  astronomical  observations  taken  by  the  Chal- 
daeans  for  an  unbroken  period  of  1903  years.  These  observations 
would  therefore  date  from  b.c.  2234  (331  +  1903),  as  the  epoch  of 
the  Third  (or  Chaldsfian)  Dynasty  of  Berosus.  Other  indications 
point  to  the  same  date,  the  adoption  of  which  gives  a  remarkable 
consistency  to  the  whole  chronological  scheme  of  Berosus.  That 
scheme  has  been  lately  examined  by  Dr.  Gutschmidt,  whose  con- 
clusions, adopted  by  Professor  Rawlinson,  are  as  follows  : — 

Babylonian  Chronology,  according  to  Gutschmidt.-)- 


en 

.5^' ) 

1 

^ 

I. 

Bi 

^) 

n  ■' 

II. 

b 

III. 

o 

IV. 

m 

u 

V. 

H 

m 

■|, 

YI. 
VII. 

>* 

VIII. 

o 

86  Chaldaeans     .  . 

8  Modes  [Mafjians] 
1 1  [Chaldipans]  .  . 
49  Chaldipans      .  . 

9  Arabians  .  .  . 
45  [Assyrians]  .  . 
[8  Assyrians]     .  . 

6  Chaldajans     .  . 

Total           .  . 


34,080 

224 

[258] 

458 

245 

526 

[122] 

87 


2458 
2234 
1976 
1518 
1273 
747 
625 


36,000 


2234 

1976 

1518 

1273 

747 

625 

538 


*  Respecting  the  character  of  the  Turanian  race  and  language,  sec  Chapter  iv.,  p.  55. 
\  The  names  and  numbers  in  brackets  are  conjectural.      The  arguments  for  the 


THE  MONARCHY  OF  NIMROD.  197 

"  If  the  numbers,"  sajs  Professor  Rawlinson,  "  are  taken  in 
the  way  assigned,  and  then  added  to  the  years  of  the  first  or  pure- 
ly mythical  dynasty,  the  sum  produced  is  exactly  36,000  years — 
the  next  term  to  the  sar  in  the  Babylonian  system  of  cycles.  It 
is  impossible  that  this  should  be  the  result  of  chance.  The  later 
Babylonians  clearly  contrived  their  mythical  number  so  that,  M'hen 
added  to  those  which  they  viewed  as  historical,  the  sum-total 
should  be  a  perfect  cyclical  period.  The  date,  b.c.  2234,  for  tlie 
accession  of  the  third  dynasty,  may  thus  be  regarded  as  certainly 
that  which  Berosus  intended  to  assign,  and  as  most  probably  cor- 
rect." Now  it  is  very  remarkable  that  this  date  of  b.c.  2234 
falls,  according  to  the  received  chronology,  within  the  lifetime  of 
Peleg  (b.c.  2247-2008),  "  in  whose  days  the  earth  was  divided," 
and  to  whose  age  M^e  may  refer  the  building  of  Babel,  and  very 
probably,  therefore,  the  establishment  of  Nimrod's  kingdom, 
which  would  thus  correspond  with  the  third  dynasty  of  Berosus. 
It  hardly  needs  to  be  explained,  that  these  views  are  offered  as  a 
fair  statement  of  the  results  made  probable  by  recent  investiga- 
tions, not  as  positively  ascertained  facts. 

With  this  Third  Dynasty,  then,  the  annals  of  Berosus  seem 
first  to  assume  somewhat  of  the  complexion  of  history ;  and  the 
appellation  "  Chaldaean  "  brings  us  back  to  the  question  of  whence 
they  came,  and  how  they  acquired  rule  over  the  country.  Thus 
much  seems  clear,  that  they  were  an  intrusive  race,  whose  power, 
like  all  the  great  empires  of  the  East,  was  acquired  by  conquest. 
But  did  they  enter  the  land  of  Shinar  from  the  North  or  from  the 
South  ?  In  favour  of  the  former  view  we  have  their  own  tradi- 
tion, that  they  were  of  old  a  mountain  race,  and  the  existence  of 
Chaldaeans  among  the  mountains  north  of  Armenia  in  historic 
times.  On  the  other  hand,  while  the  classical  writers  regard  those 
monntains  as  the  original  seat  of  the  race,  they  restrict  the  name 
of  Chaldaea  to  a  region  on  the  lower  course  of  the  Euphrates : — 
we  have  just  seen  that,  in  the  oldest  Babylonian  legends,  civiliza- 
tion is  made  to  enter  by  way  of  the  sea : — and  we  shall  find  pre- 
sently that  the  cities  near  the  Persian  Gulf  bear  marks  of  anti- 
quity higher  than  Babylon  itself.  This  view  agrees  with  the 
Scriptural  derivation  of  Nimrod,  the  founder  of  the  empire,  from 
the  race  of  Cusli ;  while  the  classical  historians  followed  a  tradi- 
tion which  made  Babylon  from  the  first  a  dependency  of  As- 
syria. It  seems  almost  equally  difficult  to  deny  that  the  original 
seats  of  the  Chaldaean  race  were  in  the  southern  highlands  of 

Bcheme  will  be  found  iu  Gutschmidt's  paper  in  the  Bheinisches  Museum,  vol.  viii.,  pp. 
'  252,  foil.,  and  Rawlinson's  Five  Great  Monarchies,  vol.  i.  chap.  8. 


198    CHALDEAN  OR  OLD   BABYLONIAN  MONARCHY.    [Chap.  IX. 

Armenia,  and  that  the  earliest  source  of  Chaldfean  empire  and 
civilization  in  Babylonia  was  from  the  South.  May  not  a  solu- 
tion be  found  in  the  hypothesis  that  a  branch  of  the  Chaldaeans 
took  part  in  the  original  southward  migration  of  the  Ilamitic  race 
and  settled  iu  the  south  of  Babylonia,  whence  they  afterwards 
made  that  reflex  movement  which  led  to  the  establishment  of  Nim- 
rod's  empire  at  Babylon  ? 

Little  is  known  of  the  history  of  Kimrod'  smonarchy,  beyond 
the  fact  that  its  cities  formed  a  tetrapolis — an  arrangement  which 
recurs  both  in  the  next  dynasty,  and  in  the  early  Assyrian  king- 
dom.* The  four  cities  mentioned  in  the  Scripture  nan-ative,  as 
founded  by  the  dynasty  of  Nimrod,  are  Babel,  Erech,  Accad,  and 
Calneh.f  But  the  information  derived  from  the  monuments 
points  to  a  subdivision  of  the  country  into  Upper  and  Lower  Clial- 
dffia ;  the  former  extending  from  Hit  on  the  Euphrates  to  below 
Bab\-lon,  and  the  latter  from  Kifter  to  tlie  Persian  Gulf.  Each 
of  these  divisions  had  a  tetrapolis ;  the  southern  consisting  of  JJr, 
Huruk,  Nipur,  and  Larsa  or  Larancha — the  Ur,  Erech,  Calueh, 
and  Ellasar  of  Scripture  ;  and  the  northern  of  Babel,  Borsippa, 
Cutha,  and  Sippara  (the  Sepharvaim  of  Scripture,  tlie  dual  form 
indicating  its  position  on  the  two  sides  of  the  river).  Borsippa 
is  the  only  one  of  these  capitals  not  named  in  Scripture,  which 
gives  us  several  names  of  less  important  towns.  As  they  are  all 
mentioned,  however,  chiefly  in  connexion  with  the  later  Assyrian 
and  Babylonian  empires,  we  cannot  be  sure  that  they  are  all  as 
early  as  the  Chaldgean  age. 

With  the  exception  of  Babylon,  the  capital  of  the  whole  land, 
the  precedence  in  point  of  antiquity  must  be  given  to  the  south- 
ern tetrapolis,  to  which  indeed  belong  two  out  of  the  four  cities 
built  by  Nimrod.  These  two,  Erech  and  Calneh,  the  Huruk  and 
l^ipur  of  the  cuneiform  inscriptions,  have  been  identified  almost 
certainly  with  the  ruins  at  Warka  and  Xiffer.;};  The  site  of  Ac- 
cad has  not  been  identified;  but  the  inscriptions  give  reason  to 
believe  that  we  have  in  this  word  the  name  of  the  primeval  peo- 
ple who  first  occupied  the  country,  "  Akkadian  colonies  " — says 
Sir  H.  Rawlinson,  on  the  authority  of  inscriptions  of  Sargon — 
"  were  transported  into  the  wilds  of  Armenia  by  the  Assyrian 
Kings  of  the  Lower  Empire,  and  strengthened  the  Hamitic  ele- 
ment in  that  quarter."  § 

*  Genesis  x.  11,  12.  f  Genesis  x.  10. 

:);  These,  and  the  other  ruins  referred  to,  are  described  by  Professor  Rawlinson, 
Five  Great  Monarchies,  vol.  i.  c.  1. 

§  Rawlinson's  Herodotus,  Essay  vl.,  vol.  i.  pp.  655,  656. 


THE  MONARCHY   OF   NIMROD.  199 

Of  tlie  two  remaining  cities  of  the  southern  tetrapolis,  Ellasai 
—  tlie  Larsa  or  Larancha  of  the  inscriptions,  and  the  Larissa  or 
Larachon  of  the  Greeks — is  probably  represented  by  the  ruins  at 
Senkereh,  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Euphrates,  between  Mugheir 
and  Warka,  It  appears  in  the  earliest  history  as  the  capital  of 
Arioch,  the  ally  of  Chedorlaomer.  Ur  or  Hnr  was  the  chief  of  the 
four,  besides  its  interest  as  the  birthplace  of  Abraham.  Its  remains 
are  seen  at  Mugheir  {Mother  of  Bitumen,  a  name  derived  from  the 
vast  quantity  of  bituminous  cement  found  in  its  ruins),  a  little 
below' 31°  jST.  lat.  It  was  the  lowest  of  all  the  great  cities  near 
the  Euphrates,  and  appears  to  have  been  originally  a  seaport,  for 
its  ships  are  mentioned  in  the  inscriptions  with  those  of  Ethiopia. 
Like  its  three  sisters,  it  was  a  great  seat  of  that  form  of  idolatry 
which  marks  the  Chaldsean  period  ;  the  moon  being  specially 
worshipped  atUr,  the  sun  at  Ellasar,  and  Jupiter  and  Yenus  (Bel 
and  Beltis)  at  Calneh  and  Erech — as  we  learn  from  the  ruined 
temples  at  Mugheir,  Senkereh,  Niffer,  and  Warka.*  Under  the 
later  empires,  Ur  remained  in  the  south,  like  Borsippa  in  the 
north,  the  great  seat  of  the  learning  of  the  Chaldaeans. 

Of  the  northern  tetrapolis,  passing  over  Babylon  for  the  pre- 
sent, the  ruins  of  Borsippa,  or  rather  of  the  great  temple  of  Bel- 
Merodach — all  that  is  left  of  the  city, — have  been  discovered  in 
the  mound  of  Birs-Nimrud,  a  little  south  of  Babylon  ;  those  of 
Cntha  at  Ibrahim,  north-east  of  Babylon,  and  between  the  two 
rivers ;  and  those  of  Sippara  or  Sejdiarvaini  at  Sura  on  the  Eu- 
phrates, about  twenty  miles  above  Babylon.  The  sites  of  several 
lesser  cities  have  been  identified  with  much  probability. 

The  chief  edifices,  v/hose  ruins  are  buried  in  the  mounds  that 
mark  the  sites  of  these  cities,  appear  to  have  been  temples ;  for 
in  Chaldaia,  as  elsewhere,  whatever  rude  provision  was  made 
for  ordinar}'  dwellings,  architecture,  as  an  art,  was  created  by  re- 
ligion. The  great  Chaldgean  towel's,  of  which  that  of  Babel  was 
the  type,  were  temples.  Though  it  seems  certain  that  the  Tower 
of  Babel  itself  was  destroyed,  and  that  the  great  Temple  of  Belus 
at  Babylon  was  a  later  erection,  the  latter  was  no  doubt  modelled 

*  Bel  was  also  symbolised  both  by  the  Sun  and  Saturn,  the  planet  throned  in  the 
seventh  heaven,  and  whose  orbit  comprehended  all  the  rest ;  Beltis  (or  Mylitta)  both 
by  the  Moon  and  Venus.  Mars  represented  Nergal,  the  God  of  War ;  and  Mercury, 
Nebo,  the  interpreter  of  the  divine  will.  The  goddess  Beltis  or  Mylitta  was  also  re- 
garded as  the  material  principle  embodied  in  the  earth,  water,  and  darkness,  as  Bel  was 
in  the  heaven,  air,  and  light.  In  this  character,  her  grove  at  Babylon  became  the  scene 
of  rites  as  licentious  as  those  of  the  Phoenician  Astarte.  Such  is  the  degradation  to 
which  the  sublime  conceptions  of  Sabaiism  have  always  tended. 


200    CHALDEAN   OR  OLD   BABYLONIAK  MONARCHY.    [Chap.  IX, 

on  the  former.  The  type  of  such  structures  can  still  he  partly 
traced  in  the  remains  of  Birs-Nimrnd  at  Borsippa,  and,  in  a  less 
developed  form,  in  those  at  Mugheir  and  Warka.  The  former, 
which  was  rebuilt  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  shows  the  completest  plan 
of  these  edifices  ;  the  others,  which  are  referred  to  the  very  be- 
ginning of  the  Chahhx3an  monarchy  (about  u.c.  2234),  giving 
only  the  first  germ.  Tlic  ground-plan  is  an  exact  square,  with 
the  angles  (not  the  faces)  to  the  four  cardinal  points,  an  arrange- 
ment at  once  raising  the  presumption  of  an  astronomical  purpose ; 
nor  can  there  be  any  doubt  that  the  buildings  were  used  as  obser- 
vatories. From  this  base  the  building  rises  in  successive  stages, 
each  smaller  than  the  one  below,  thus  presenting  an  analogy  to 
the  pyramidal  form  used  by  the  Egyptians,  the  more  interesting 
from  the  discovery  that  the  Pyramids  themselves  Avere  built  in 
stages.*  At  Birs-Nimi-ud,  however,  the  pyramid  is  oblique ; 
in  other  Avords,  the  centres  of  the  stages  are  not  exactly  over 
one  another,  but  removed  towards  the  south-west,  so  that  the 
south-west  face  had  the  steepest  and  the  north-east,  or  back  of  the 
tower,  the  gentlest  ascent.  The  complete  number  of  stories  at  Bor- 
sippa was  seven,  corresponding  to  the  sun  and  moon,  and  the  five 
planets,  their  faces  being  distinguished  by  colours,  as  follows  :  the 
basement,  black;  the  next  stage,  orange;  the  third,  red;  the 
fourth,  golden  (?) ;  the  fifth,  yellow  ;  the  sixth,  blue  ;  the  seventh, 
silver  (?).f  The  highest  st^ge  supported  the  shrine  or  chapel 
containing  the  sacred  ark.  These  stages  are  of  burnt  brick,  the 
basement  resting  on  a  platform  of  crude  brick  raised  a  few  feet 
above  the  alluvial  soil.  Tlieir  areas  diminish  from  a  square  of 
272  feet  at  the  base,  to  one  of  20  feet  at  the  summit.  The 
heiglits  are  unequal,  the  three  lower  stories  rising  26  feet  each, 
and  the  four  upper  15  feet,  which  seems  also  to  have  been  the 
height  of  the  chapel  on  the  summit.  The  total  height  of  the  Birs- 
Nimrud  is  about  153  feet,  and  this  is  the  loftiest  knoMu ;  the 
Babil,  or  Temple  of  Belus  at  Babylon,  being  about  140  feet  high, 
that  at  Warka  100,  and  that  at  Mugheir  only  50.  They  were 
thus  much  lower  than  the  Great  Pyramid,  which  was  originally 
480  feet  high.  These  nunibers  will  serve  to  correct  both  our 
childish  errors  respecting  the  Tower  of  Babel,  and  the  exaggera- 
tions of  ancient  writers  about  the  Temple  of  Belus  at  Babylon. 

*  See  chap.  vii.  p.  97. 

f  The  colours  marked  as  doubtful  can  scarcely  be  made  out  in  the  ruins.  The 
whole  series  seems  well'  chosen  to  represent  the  planets  in  their  supposed  order,  namely, 
beginning  from  the  summit, — the  moon  (silver),  Mercury  (blue),  Venus  (yellow),  the 
Sun  (gold),  Mars  (red),  Jupiter  (orange),  Saturn,  the  malignant,  (black). 


THE   CHALDiEAN  TEMPLE-TOWERS.  201 

It  is  supposed  that  the  upper  stories  contained  sleeping  chambers 
for  the  priests  in  summer ;  the  air  at  that  elevation  being  cooler 
and  freer  from  the  insects  that  infest  the  plain.  The  earlier  tem- 
ples had  a  smaller  number  of  stages.  At  Mugheir  and  Warka 
only  two  are  now  visible,  and  there  seem  never  to  have  been  more 
than  three  or  four.  The  Babil  shows  no  more  than  one ;  but  it  is 
stated  b}^  ancient  writers  to  have  had  the  form  of  a  pyramid.  The 
earliest  form  seems  to  have  had  three  stories,  the  topmost  being 
formed  by  the  shrine ;  but  in  some  cases,  as  the  Babil,  tliis  may 
have  been  placed  only  on  a  trnncated  pyramid.  The  material  of 
these  stones  is  invariably  brick,  or  a  brick  casing  about  an  earthen 
mound,  the  alluvial  plain  being  quite  destitute  of  stone.  In  the 
temple  at  Warka  the  bricks  are  merely  sun-dried  :  in  that  at 
Mugheir  the  walls  of  sun-dided  bricks  are  faced  by  burnt  bricks  of 
a  small  size  and  inferior  quality.  The  cement  used  in  the  former 
is  mud,  with  reeds  for  binding — in  the  latter  bitumen,  without 
reeds.  These  edifices  are  thus  of  ruder  and  apparently  more  pri- 
mitive construction  than  that  adopted  by  the  Babel  builders,  who 
burnt  their  bricks  thoroughly.  Xor  need  this  excite  surprise, 
since  such  an  edifice  as  Babel  would  scarcely  be  attempted  till 
some  skill  had  been  acquired  by  earlier  experiments.  The  fact 
that  the  most  ancient  of  these  buildings  are  found  nearest  the 
Persian  Gulf,  coupled  with  the  precedence  of  the  maritime  city 
of  Ur,  strongly  favours  the  view,  that  the  first  Cushite  settlers 
occupied  the  district  near  the  sea.  The  materials  and  foiTti  of 
these  temple-towers  have  determined  the  peculiar  shape  assumed 
by  their  ruins.  The  upper  and  outer  portions,  falling  over  the 
rest,  and  becoming  disintegrated  by  the  atmosphere,  have  formed 
a  rude  mound  of  earth,  under  which  a  large  part  of  the  original 
structure  has  lain  hidden  and  protected,  awaiting  the  researches 
which,  in  our  own  day,  have  opened  a  new  page  of  the  oldest 
period  of  history. 

These  ruins  have  a  jiart  of  their  own  story  inscribed  upon  them 
in  characters  which  prove  the  vast  antiquity  of  the  art  of  w  riting 
among  the  Chaldseans.  In  this  case,  as  in  others,  the  race  of 
Ham  led  the  way  in  the  arts  most  needful  for  common  life.  We 
can  hardly  hoj)e  to  decide  the  question,  whether  writing  was 
invented  in  Egypt  and  Chaldaea  independently,  or  whether,  as 
seems  more  likely,  it  was  already  common  to  the  different  Hamitic 
races  before  their  separation.  At  all  events,  the  earliest  forms 
found  in  Chaldsea  point  unquestionably,  like  the  hieroglyphics  of 
Egypt,  to  a  pictorial  origin.     The  first  rude  attempts  to  commu- 


202    CHALDEAN  OR   OLD   BABYLONIAN  MONARCHY.    [Chap.  IX. 

iiicate  the  idea  of  an  object  by  its  likeness  were  made  more  definite 
by  giving  that  likeness  a  conventional  form, — sucli  as  a  square  for 
the  ground-plan  of  a  house,  live  lines  joined  perpendicularly  to 
another  for  the  liand,  and  many  similar  examples.  If  tliese  forms 
were  only  meant  to  convey  the  idea  of  the  thing  itself,  they  would 
form  a  symbolical  representation  of  objects ;  but  by  conveying 
also  the  idea  of  the  names  of  those  objects,  they  come  to  represent 
words,  and  thus  the  first  step  is  taken  in  the  art  of  writing. 
When  the  same  object  has  dififerent  names,  its  pictorial  sign 
acquires  the  phonetic  value  of  each  of  those  names  ;  and  as  the 
words,  for  which  signs  are  thus  provided,  may  enter  as  syllables 
into  the  formation  of  other  words,  their  signs  receive  a  syllabic, 
and  no  longer  only  a  separate  value.  For  example,  if  our  own 
written  language  were  in  the  hieroglyphic  state,  the  pictorial  signs 
for  a  hce  and  a  hind  might  form  that  for  the  word  hehind  y  a  moon 
and  a  Jcty  that  for  monkey :  and  the  same  signs  would  enter  into 
the  representation  of  all  other  words  containing  any  of  the  same 
syllables.  But  even  where  the  characters  stand  for  less  simple 
words,  they  may  become  syllabic  by  a  process  of  abbreviation,  the 
sign  being  taken  for  only  the  initial  syllable  or  portion  of  the 
word.  Thus  the  sign  for  lion  might  stand  for  the  syllable  ??',  as  in 
fact  that  for  Asslmr  represents,  in  cuneiform  writing,  the  syllable 
as,  with  many  other  such  examples.  The  final  step  to  alphabet- 
ical writing  is  then  taken  almost  imperceptibly ;  for  nothing  is 
more  certain  than  that  alphabetic  characters  were  once  syllabic, 
as  their  very  names  still  indicate. 

The  first  stage  in  this  process  is  seen  in  the  Egyptian  hierogly- 
phics ;  the  second  in  the  hieratic  characters  derived  from  them, 
and  often  placed  beside  them  in  the  same  inscriptions.  What 
the  hieratic  writing  is  to  the  hieroglyphic,  the  like  is  the  cunei- 
form to  a  system  of  pictorial  representation  which  seems  to  have 
become  almost  obsolete  at  the  time  of  the  earliest  Chaldaian 
inscriptions.  But  some  traces  of  it  still  remain  in  very  early 
writings,  and  in  those  fixed  determinative  signs  which  give  a 
particular  significance  to  the  word  that  follows  them,  as  an  eight- 
rayed  star  for  the  name  of  a  god.  In  this  second  stage  the 
Chaldaean  characters  are  remarkable  for  consisting  entirely  of 
straight  lines,  without  curves.  Tliese  lines  are,  in  the  earliest 
inscriptions,  of  uniform  thickness,  being  in  fact  scratches  made  by 
the  point  of  a  graving  tool ;  and  this  form  is  preserved  in  the 
numerous  engraved  gems  that  have  been  discovered.  The  plastic 
nature  of  their  building  materials,  however,  suggested  the  mode 


THE   CUNEIFORM  INSCRIPTIONS.  203 

of  forming  each  line  by  the  pressure  of  the  lower  part  of  the 
graving-tool,  or  style,  leaving  the  peculiar  wedge-shaped  mark 
(V)  which  has  given  to  the  character  the  name  of  cuneiform.. 
Such  are  the  simple  lines,  like  the  "  straight-strokes  "  and  "  pot- 
hooks "  of  our  school-days  (only  that  the  Chaldsean  writing  knows 
no  pothooks),  which,  combined  in  various  positions,  perpendicu- 
lar, horizontal,  and  oblique,  were  used  at  first  in  rude  imitation 
of  the  pictorial  symbols,  and  afterwards  modified  and  simplified 
into  syllabic  and  alphabetic  characters.  The  relation  of  these 
forms  to  the  Egyptian,  and  to  those  old  Semitic  or  "Phoinician" 
characters  from  which  all  the  European  alphabets  are  derived, 
is  too  wide  a  question  to  be  discussed  here.  Thus  much  we  may 
afiirm, — that  alphabetic  writing  had  at  least  one  of  its  original 
sources  among  the  Chaldseans. 

Nor  can  we  enter  upon  the  history  and  principles  of  the  re-^ 
cent  discoveries  in  deciphering  these  records.  The  objection,  that 
we  have  no  instance  of  the  recovery  of  a  lost  language  in  an 
nnknown  character,  fortified  by  the  case  of  the  undecij)hered 
Etruscan  incriptions,  seems  not  unanswerable.  For  while,  on  the 
one  hand,  we  know  enough  of  the  principles  of  pictorial  writing 
to  have  some  clue  to  the  tilings  for  which  the  characters  are 
meant,  some  at  least  of  the  names  of  those  things  are  furnished 
us  by  langTiages  akin  t6  those  of  the  countries  where  we  find  these 
inscriptions ;  and  thus  we  can  approach  the  problem  from  two 
different  sides.  But  this  would  avail  little  without  some  more 
definite  key,  such  as  the  Rosetta  stone  supplies  for  the  Egyptian 
hieroglyphics;  and  this  is  partly  furnished  by  the  bilingual  and 
trilingual  inscriptions,  especially  that  of  Darius  Hystaspis  at  Be- 
histun,  in  spite  of  the  drawback  that  each  of  the  versions  is  in 
the  cuneiform  character.  This  field  of  research  is  encumbered 
with  difficulties  far  greater  than  in  the  parallel  case  of  the  hiero- 
glyphics. The  distinct  preservation  of  the  pictorial  stage  in  Egypt 
gives  a  far  plainer  clue  to  the  meaning  of  the  characters ;  and  in 
the  second  stage,  as  the  Egyptians  were  one  race,  with  a  common 
language,  each  of  the  hieratic  characters  has  but  one  phonetic 
value,  while  the  cuneiform  signs  represent  the  many  different 
names  which  the  same  object  bore  among  the  mixed  population 
of  Chaldsea.  Still,  it  may  be  fairly  said  that  the  two  cases  are  so 
far  alike  in  principle,  that  the  critic  who  regards  cuneiform  inter- 
pretation as  delusive,  should  consistently  deny  the  power  of  de- 
ciphering Egyptian  hieroglyphics.     In  both  cases  a  special  aid  is 


204    CHALDEAN  OR   OLD   BABYLONIAN  MONARCHY.    [Chap.  IX. 

afforded  by  the  oecuiTence  of  proper  names  ;  and  in  botli  the  re« 
suits  obtained  go  far  to  vindicate  the  method. 

The  facility  with  which  the  cuneiform  characters  were  im- 
pressed on  the  plastic  clay,  as  compared  with  the  process  of  en- 
graving on  the  granite  and  sandstone  of  Egypt,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  nature  of  the  material  (so  much  more  durable  than  the 
perishable  papyri)  on  the  other,  has  preserved  for  us  a  vast  body 
of  Chaldffian,  Assyrian,  and  Babylonian  literature.  The  cunei- 
form inscriptions  are  partly  on  bricks  and  partly  on  tablets.  Tlie 
bricks  seem  to  bear  none  but  royal  inscriptions,  commemorating 
the  kings  who  built  the  edifices  to  which  they  belonged.  The 
tablets  are  real  lool:s^  and  the  whole  body  of  them  forms  a  vast 
library.  The  mass  of  writing  on  some  of  them  is  immense,  the 
characters  being  as  fine  and  tlie  lines  as  close  as  those  of  an  ordi- 
nary octavo  page.  The  means  taken  to  secure  the  writing  from 
injury  are  equally  curious  and  effectual.  After  the  inscribed  clay 
had  been  burnt  to  a  terra-cotta  far  more  durable  than  most  sorts 
of  stone,  it  was  coated  with  another  layer,  on  which  the  inscrip- 
tion was  repeated,  and  the  whole  was  again  fired,  so  that  the  in- 
terior writing  might  be  brought  to  light  long  after  the  exterior  was 
effaced.  Besides  the  inscriptions,  many  of  these  tablets  bear  the 
impression  of  seals,  stamped  by  a  cylindrical  roller  run  across  or 
round  them,  so  that  the  device  is  repeated  several  times.  The 
writing  of  the  inscriptions  is  from  right  to  left.  This  brief  and 
general  account  of  the  cuneiform  inscriptions,  which  applies  alike 
to  the  old  Chaldaean,  the  Assyrian,  and  the  later  Babylonian,  will 
prepare  us  to  appreciate  the  light  they  throw  on  the  history  of 
these  kingdoms. 

These  records  are,  however,  silent  respecting  the  first  period 
of  the  Chaldaean  monarchy,  that  identified  with  the  name  of  ISTim- 
rod.  To  the  statements  of  Scripture  concerning  him,  we  can  only 
add  the  fact  of  his  deification  by  the  name  of  Bel-Nipru,  or  Bel- 
Nimrod,  which  is  interpreted  "  the  god  of  the  chase,"  an  exact 
equivalent  to  the  "  mighty  hunter  before  Jehovah."  -  His  tradi- 
tional fame  in  those  regions  is  only  ecjualled  by  that  of  Solomon 
and  Alexander  ;  and  these  old  traditions  are  still  cherished  by  the 
Arabs,  who  attach  his  name  to  the  chief  heaps  of  ruins  that  stand 
on  the  Chaldaean  plain.  Nor  is  his  renown  confined  to  the  earth, 
if  at  least  it  was  in  his  honour,  as  tradition  says,  that  the  constella- 

*  Rawlinson  derives  Nipru  from  the  root  napar — to  pursue,  or  cause  to  fee.  The 
name  is  also  seen  in  that  of  the  city  of  Nipur  (now  Niffer\  the  Biblical  Calneh,  which 
.vas  probably  the  chief  seat  of  the  worship  of  Nimrod. 


B.C.  2234  ?]        THE   FIRST   CHALDEAN  MONARCHY.  205 

tion  of  Orion  received  from  the  Ciialdees  the  name  handed  down 
by  the  Arab  astronomers,  of  "  the  giant." 

The  first  Chaldsean  monarchy  lasted,  according  to  the  scheme 
set  forth  above,  a  little  more  tlian  two  centuries  and  a  half  (b.c. 
2234 — 1976).  Berosus  does  not  name  any  of  the  eleven  kings 
whom  he  assio^ns  to  this  dynasty,  but  Ovid  *  alludes  to  a  certain 
Orchamus  as  the  seventh  in  succession  from  Belus.  A  point  of 
mythical  genealogy  in  a  poet  of  the  Augustan  age  could  have 
no  historical  value,  unless  we  could  trace  it  to  some  historical 
source.  But  recent  researches  have  brought  to  light  a  name 
which  bears  a  curious  resemblance  to  this  Orchamus.  TjErKH,  or 
Urkham,  has  inscribed  his  name,  with  the  title  of  "  King  of  TJr 
and  Kingi-Accad,"  on  the  basement  story  of  all  those  Chaldaean 
buildings  whose  rnde  workmanship  and  sun-dried  bricks,  with 
the  absence  of  lime-mortar,  prove  them  to  be  the  most  ancient  of 
all;  for  instance,  at  Mugheir  (Ur),  Warka  (Erech),  Niflfer  (Xipur 
or  Calneh),  and  Senkereh  (Ellasar).  He  may,  therefore,  be  safely 
regarded  as  the  earliest  of  the  kings  whose  names  occur  on  the 
monuments.  ''  It  is  evident,"  says  Professor  ]Aawlinson,f  "  from 
the  size  and  number  of  these  works,  that  their  erecter  had  the  com- 
mand of  a  vast  amount  of  naked  human  strength,  and  did  not 
scruple  to  employ  that  strength  in  constructions  ....  designed  to 
extend  his  o^vn  fame  and  to  perpetuate  his  own  glory.  We  may 
gather  from  this  that  he  was  either  an  oppressor  of  his  people,  like 
some  of  the  Pyramid  Kings  in  Egypt,  or  else  a  conqueror,  who 
thus  employed  the  numerous  captives  carried  off  in  his  expedi- 
tions." His  buildings  appear  to  have  been  temples  to  all  the 
chief  Chalda?an  deities.  Their  construction,  though  rude,  exhibits 
considerable  mechanical  skill ;  and  a  careful  system  of  drainage 
is  employed.  The  inscriptions  of  tliis  king  are  all  of  the  second 
stage,  in  which  the  lines  bear  some  rough  likeness  to  the  older 
pictorial  symbols.  The  engraving  of  his  signet  cylinder  is  much 
less  nide  than  the  inscriptions. :{: 

Urukh  must  almost  certainly  be  ascribed  to  the  third  dynasty 
of  Berosus,  which  we  have  seen  reason  to  identify  with  the  Cush- 
ite  monarchy  of  Nimrod.  §     The  close  of  this  dynasty,  according 

*  Metam.  iv.  212,  213.  f  Five  Great  Monarchies,  vol.  i.  pp.  199,  200. 

I  This  point  is  rather  doubtful,  from  the  fact  that  the  cvlindcr  itself  is  lost,  and  we 
have  only  the  engraving  of  it  in  the  Travels  of  Sir  R.  K.  Porter,  who  once  possessed  it. 
It  is  copied  in  Rawlinson's  Five  Ch'eat  Monarchies,  vol.  1.  p.  118. 

§  Later  inscriptions  bear  another  name,  which  it  is  proposed  to  read  as  Ilgi,  the  son 
of  Urukh,  who  finished  some  of  his  father's  buildings  at  Ur,  and,  in  particular,  the  tem- 
ple of  the  moon-goddess. 


206    CHALDEAN  OR   OLD  BABYLONIAN  MONARCHY.    [Chap.  IX 

to  the  above  sclieme  (b.c.  197C),  synchronises  witli  the  early  h'fe 
of  Abraham,  whose  birth  falls,  according  to  the  common  chronol- 
ogy, in  B.C.  1996.  About  fifty  years  later,  we  read  of  the  great 
expedition  against  the  land  of  Canaan,  1200  miles  distant,  by 
Chedodaomer^  wliose  name  seems  to  be  Ilamitie,  while  his  title, 
"  King  of  Elain,"  points  to  a  conquest  of  the  Chaldsean  plain  by 
the  Elymasan  mountaineers.  The  monuments  are  said  to  bear 
traces  of  some  such  revolution ;  and  this  must  therefore  be  the 
fourth  or  Chalda3an  dynasty  of  Berosus,  who  assigns  to  it  forty- 
nine  kings  in  a  period  exceeding  450  years  (b.c.  1976 — 1518),  a 
period  very  nearly  contemporary  with  the  430  years  from  the  call 
of  Abraham  to  the  Exodus  in  b.c.  1491. 

In  fact,  this  period  was  marked  near  the  beginning,  as  well  as 
at  its  end,  by  what  may  be  truly  called  an  exodus  of  the  chosen 
race.  The  Scripture  narrative,  regarding  this  movement  in  its 
relation  to  the  Divine  purposes  and  promise,  ascribes  it  to  God's 
call  of  Abraham  ;  but  that  call  may  have  been  given  by  events 
connected  with  the  political  movements  of  the  country.  The 
Elamitic  conquerors,  like  the  new  king  in  Eg}q)t  who  knew  not 
Joseph,  may  have  begun  to  oppress  the  race  of  Shem,  who  pre- 
served the  worship  of  the  true  God.  At  all  events,  the  migration 
of  the  family  of  Terah  was  not  the  onl}^  great  movement  of  the 
Semitic  race  up  the  valley  of  the  Euphrates.  The  Phoenicians 
pursued  the  same  course  about  the  same  period ;  and  while  the 
family  of  Terah  remained  at  Charran,  they  pressed  on  past  the 
ranges  of  Lebanon  to  the  strip  of  coast  in  the  Mediterranean, 
which  became  so  famous  under  their  name.  Their  great  city  of 
Sidon  was  already  built  when  Abraham  lived  in  Canaan. 

Chedorlaomer's  movement  in  the  same  direction,  when  he 
reduced  the  five  cities  of  the  plain  to  tributaries,  may  have  origi- 
nated in  the  desire  to  reconcjuer  the  fugitive  Semites.  Tliis 
monarch  is  the  greatest  of  the  Elamitic  dynasty,  and  perhaps  its 
founder.  His  name,  which  the  LXX  give  in  the  form  Chodol- 
logomor,  is  now  explained  as  Kudur-lagamer,  the  Servant  of 
Lagamer^  a  Susianian  deity.*     The  most  interesting  point  in  his 

*  Sir  II.  Rawlinson  formerly  identified  him  with  Kudur-mabuk,  whose  name  appears 
on  inscriptions  at  Ur,  with  the  title  Apda  Martu,  which  was  interpreted  Ravacjer  of  the 
Went.  Sir  Henry  now  doubts  this  interpretation,  and  places  Kudur-mabuk  considerably 
later  than  Chedorlaomer.  Some  Egyptologers  have  supposed  a  connection  between  the 
expedition  of  Chedorlaomer  and  the  invasion  of  the  Shepherd  Kings,  the  latter  being 
driven  out  by  the  former.  If  the  comparative  chronology  can  be  depended  on,  the 
so-called  "  Assyrian "  dynasty  of  the  Shepherds  (the  Sixteenth)  would  be  Chaldasans, 
probably  the  branch  that  reigned  at  Nineveh. 


B.C.  1936?]         EXPEDITIONS   OF   CHEDORLAOMEK.  207 

second  expedition,  the  stoiy  of  which  we  have  ah-eady  told,  is  his 
alliance  with  the  three  kings — Tidal,  king  of  nations  ;  Amraphel, 
king  of  Shinar  ;  and  Arioch,  king  of  Ellasar.  In  this  quadruple 
alliance  recent  inquirers  find  a  record  of  the  four  races  which, 
from  the  earliest  known  period,  composed  the  mixed  population 
of  Chaldtea.  The  "  nations  "  led  by  Tidal  were  the  Turanian  or 
Scythian  nomad  tribes,  by  whom  the  country  was  first  peopled  : 
the  Semites  who  remained  in  the  country  seem  to  have  already 
established  themselves  under  Amraphel  at  Babylon,  afterwards 
the  capital  of  their  race,  though  in  subjection  to  Chedorlaomer : 
the  name  of  Arioch  seems  to  mark  him  as  the  head  of  the  Aryan 
population  :  while  the  Ilamite  race  is  represented  by  Chedorlao- 
mer himself.  All  this  agrees  with  the  name  of  Kiprath-arhat 
(four  nations  or  tongues)  which  is  given,  in  the  cuneiform  inscrip- 
tions, to  the  subjects  of  this  dynasty.  And  this  mixture  lasted 
under  the  Assyrian,  Babylonian,  and  Medo-Persian  empires,  only 
that  the  Hamite  race  are  merged  in  the  later  Semitic  develop- 
ment. The  Medo-Persian  kings  found  it  necessary  to  publish^ 
their  edicts  in  the  three  chief  forms  of  language, — their  own, 
which  is  Aryan,  the  Assyrian,  which  is  Semitic,  and  the  Scythic 
or  Turanian.* 

The  repulse  of  the  confederate  kings  by  Abraham  seems  to 
have  put  an  end  to  Chaldsean  conquests  beyond  the  Euphrates. 
The  notices  of  the  family  of  Nahor,  in  the  history  of  Isaac  and 
Jacob,  show  Upper  Mesopotamia  apparently  in  a  state  of  patriarch- 
al independence.  But  the  eastern  part  of  that  region,  along  the 
valley  of  tlie  Tigris,  or  Assyria  Proper,  was  evidently  subject  to 
the  Chaldaean  monarchy ;  for  an  inscription  records  the  building 
of  a  temple  at  Kileh-Shergat  by  Shamas-Yul,  the  son  of  Ismi-Da- 
gon,  about  b.o.  1850  ;  and  this  Shamas-Yul  appears  to  have  been 
a  viceroy  of  Assyria,  since  another  son  of  Ismi-Dagon  reigned  in 
Chaldsea  Proper.  The  names  of  fifteen  or  sixteen  kings  have 
been  discovered  on  the  monuments  ;  and  this  is  supposed  to  be 
nearer  to  the  true  number  of  the  dynasty  than  the  forty-nine 
ascribed  to  Berosus,  whose  immbers  may  easily  have  been  cor- 
rupted. The  records  indicate  a  gradual  removal  of  the  seat  of 
government  up  the  valley  from  the  original  capital  at  Ur,  till  it 
becomes  fixed  at  Babylon — a  movement  which  would  extend  the 
arts  and  civilization  of  the  Chaldseans  to  the  northern  parts  of 

*  By  a  curious  coincidence,  the  valley  having  fallen  again  under  the  dominion  of  a 
Turanian  race,  public  documents  are  issued  in  Turkish,  which  is  Turanian ;  Persian, 
which  is  Aryan  ;  and  Arabic,  which  is  Semitic. 


208    CHALD^EAN  OR  OLD  BABYLONIAN  MONARCHY.    [Chap.  IX. 

Mesopotamia.  The  Avliole  region  of  Upper  and  Lower  Mesopo- 
tamia seems  to  liave  been  ultimately  included  in  the  empire. 

The  final  overthrow  of  this  great  Cushite  kingdom  appears  to 
liave  been  effected  by  the  Arabs  of  the  desert.  The  western  fron- 
tier miglit  have  seemed  sufficiently  protected  from  invasion  by  the 
vast  waste  ocean  of  sand.  But  it  has  always  been  the  charac- 
teristic of  the  Arab  triljes  to  multiply  and  flourisli  in  those  abodes 
so  congenial  to  their  wild  nature,  almost  unseen  by  their  civilized 
neighbours,  on  whom  they  have  poured  down  their  collected  force 
when  the  torrent  of  invasion  was  least  looked  for.  In  the  plain 
of  Mesopotamia  they  have  always  been  intruding,  like  the  sands 
of  their  own  deserts.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  they  formed  a  con- 
siderable element  of  the  population  from  very  early  times.  Under 
the  Assyrian  Empire  there  were  at  least  thirty  of  their  tribes 
between  the  two  great  rivers,  and  they  even  extended  into  Media. 
At  the  present  day  they  have  overrun  the  whole  country ;  but, 
like  their  own  sands  again,  these  early  Arabs  left  no  other  monu- 
ments of  their  power  than  the  destruction  of  the  civilization  that 
flourished  before.  It  was  not  till  long  afterwards  that  they  learned, 
from  the  nations  they  conquered,  the  arts  and  science  for  which  they 
were  famous  in  the  middle  ages.  No  records  are  preserved  of  their 
conquest  of  Chald?ea,  beyond  the  mention  by  Berosus  of  an  Ara- 
bian dynasty  (his  fifth)  of  nine  kings,  for  a  period  of  245  years  (e.g. 
1518 — 1273).  They  interpose  as  a  great  historic  blank  between 
the  fall  of  the  Chaldean  Empire  and  the  rise  of  the  Assyrian. 

Such  a  wave  of  Semite  population  could  not  pass  over  the  land 
without  giving  a  vast  impulse  to  that  tendency  which  the  Hamite 
race  has  always  shown  to  develope  itself  into  the  Semitic  type,  a 
development  which  must  have  been  greatly  aided  by  the  influence 
of  Assyria,  now  released  from  the  Chaldsean  yoke.  When,  there- 
fore, this  latter  power  grew  into  an  empire,  we  are  not  surprised 
to  find  it  bearing  a  Semitic  character.  But  the  old  Chaldsean 
stock  survived ;  and  even  retained  the  best  pait  of  its  ancient 
power,  the  supremacy  in  letters,  art,  and  science.  Their  archi- 
tecture and  writing  were  adopted  by  the  Assyrians.  Their  men 
of  learning  retained  the  power  of  the  priesthood,  and  formed  an 
honoured  and  powerful  caste,  which  may  be  traced  even  down  to 
the  time  of  the  Parthian  dominion.  Tlie  common  people,  how- 
ever, seem  to  have  been  merged  in  the  Semitic  population,  as 
they  certainly  adopted  a  Semitic  form  of  language.  We  shall 
soon  have  to  relate  the  revolution  by  which  the  Chaldasan  dynasty 
of  Nabopolassar  founded  a  new  empire  at  Babylon  after  the  lapse 


CHALDiEAN  TEMPLES  AND   TOMBS.  209 

of  nearly  nine  centuries  (b.c.  625),  and  the  prowess  of  ISTebiicliacl- 
nezzar  achieved  the  conqnests  vainly  attempted  by  Chedorlaomer. 
It  remains  to  notice  those  arts  of  civilization  which  found  one 
of  their  two  earliest  homes  on  the  plains  of  Chalda?a.  Professor 
Rawlinson  has  well  observed,  that  "for  the  last  three  thousand 
years  the  world  has  been  mainly  indebted  for  its  advancement  to 
the  Semitic  and  Indo-European  races ;  but  it  was  otherwise  in 
the  first  ages.  Egypt  and  Babylon — Mizraim  and  Kimrod,  both 
descendants  of  Ham — led  the  way,  and  acted  as  the  pioneers  of 
mankind  in  the  various  untrodden  fields  of  art,  literature,  and 
science.  Alphabetic  writing,  astronomy,  history,  chronology, 
architecture,  plastic  art,  sculpture,  navigation,  agriculture,  textile 
industry,  seem  all  of  them  to  have  had  their  origin  in  one  or  other 
of  these  two  countries."  *  Of  the  architecture  and  writing  of 
the  Chaldaeans  we  have  already  spoken.  Further  details  respect- 
ing the  manufacture  of  their  bricks  and  the  constrnction  of  their 
edifices  will  be  found  in  the  works  descriptive  of  the  recent  dis- 
coveries. Their  massive  temples  seem  to  have  been  almost  desti- 
tute of  external  ornament ;  the  interiors  were  decorated  with 
small  pieces  of  choice  stones,  as  agate,  alabaster,  and  marble,  and 
with  plates  of  gold,  fixed  to  the  walls  by  metal  nails.  Of  their 
domestic  architecture  we  have  but  scanty  remains.  The  struc- 
tures on  which,  next  to  their  temples,  they  bestowed  most  pains, 
were  their  tombs,  which  are  collected  in  great  numbers  about  the 
principal  cities.  This  fact,  coupled  with  the  paucity  of  tombs 
found  in  Assyria  and  Upper  Babylonia,  suggests  the  belief  that, 
down  to  the  latest  age  of  those  empires,  the  dead  were  brought 
irom  all  parts  of  Mesopotamia  for  interment  in  the  sacred  soil  of 
Chaldaea.  Some  of  the  cemeteries,  however,  as  at  Mugheir  (Ur), 
bear  the  marks  of  one  age,  and  that  probably  the  most  ancient. 
These  old  tombs  are  of  three  kinds.  The  first  is  a  vault  of  sun- 
dried  bricks  laid  in  mud,  constructed  in  the  form  of  a  false  arch, 
like  some  of  the  Egyptian  buildings  and  the  Scythian  tombs. 
From  the  tops  of  the  side  Avails,  which  slope  a  little  outwards, 
courses  of  brick  are  laid  so  as  to  project  inwards  till  they  almost 
meet  at  the  summit,  which  is  closed  by  a  single  brick.  These 
seem  to  have  been  family  tombs ;  for  they  generally  contain 
three  or  four  skeletons,  with  drinking  vessels  and  articles  of  orna- 
ment. The  next  form  is  a  clay  coffin,  in  the  shape  of  a  dish- 
cover,  at  the  bottom  of  which  the  skeleton  is  seen,  lying  on  a 
mat.    Never  more  than  two  skeletons  are  found  together,  and  these 

*  Five  Great  Monarchies,  vol.  i.  p.  75. 

VOL.  I. — 1-4 


210     CHALDJ2AN  OR  OLD  BABYLONIAN  MONARCHY.     [Chap.  IX. 

are  male  and  female,  doubtless  husband  and  "wife.  The  third  sort 
of  coffin  is  composed  of  two  bell-shaped  jars,  placed  mouth  to  mouth 
with  holes  at  the  smaller  ends.  The  coffins  are  laid  in  rows,  and 
often  in  several  layers,  not  beneath  the  surface  of  the  oozy  plain, 
but  under  artificial  mounds,  which  are  provided  with  an  elaborate 
system  of  drainage.  The  drinking  vessels,  ornamental  vases,  and 
lamps  found  in  the  tombs  give  us  numerous  examples  of  the  skill 
to  which  the  Chaldteans  attained  in  pottery.  Tools  and  weapons 
are  also  found,  which  mark,  here  as  elsewhere,  the  distinction 
between  a  "  stone  "  and  a  "  bronze  or  iron  "  age.  Almost  from 
the  earliest  times  Ave  find  traces  of  the  art  of  working  metal 
into  small  articles  for  use  and  ornament,  as  nails,  bolts,  rings, 
chains,  bracelets,  earrings,  and  fishhooks.  The  only  metals  so 
employed  are  gold,  copj^er,  tin,  lead,  and  iron  :  the  absence  of 
silver  deserves  notice  :  a  bronze  of  copper  and  tin  is  also  used. 
Of  textile  fabrics  we  must  not  expect  to  find  many  remains  ;  but 
the  delicately  strijjcd  and  fringed  dresses  seen  on  the  most  ancient 
signet  cylinders  confirm  the  fame  of  those  "  goodly  Babylonish 
garments,"  Avhich  had  been  imported  into  Palestine,  and  which 
Achan  coveted,  in  the  time  of  Joshua.  Linen  is  said  to  have 
been  found  adhering  to  some  of  the  skeletons ;  and  their  heads 
rest  on  a  sort  of  tasseled  cushion.* 

There  is  reason  to  believe  that  an  extensive  commerce  was 
carried  on  from  the  ports  of  the  Persian  Gulf,  along  the  course 
of  the  Euphrates,  and  by  caravans  across  the  Syrian  Desert,  and 
that  the  Phoenicians  obtained  ivory  and  other  Indian  products  by 
way  of  Babylon. 

It  is,  however,  by  their  cultivation  of  arithmetic  and  astrono- 
my, and  the  application  of  these  sciences  to  the  uses  of  common 
life,  that  the  Chaldseans  have  left  the  most  permanent  impress 
upon  all  succeeding  ages.  To  say  nothing  of  the  probability  that 
they  devised  the  system  of  mapping  out  and  naming  the  stars, 
which  was  already  known  to  Job,  it  is  to  their  astronomical 
records  that  we  owe  the  existence  of  any  approach  to  a  trust- 
worthy chronology  of  those  remote  ages ;  while  all  the  systems  of 
weights  and  measures  used  throughout  the  civilized  world,  down 
to  the  present  time,  are  based  more  or  less  upon  that  which  they 
invented. f     Their  inscriptions,  which  contain  some  very  curious 

*  For  further  details  on  all  these  points,  see  Rawlinson,  I'ivc  Great  Monarchies, 
vol.  i.  ch.  v.,  from  which  the  above  account  is  abridged. 

■)•  For  a  full  account  of  this  system,  and  its  relations  to  those  of  other  nations,  the 
reader  is  referred  to  BocklCs  Metrologische  Untersuchmicfcn,  to  the  review  of  that  work 


ARTS  AND   SCIENCES   OF   THE   CHALDEANS.  211 

arithmetical  tables,  perpetuate  tlieir  simple  and  natural  form  of 
decimal  notation,  in  which,  as  in  the  Roman,  new  signs  are  used 
for  10,  50,  100,  and  1000.  But  they  also  used  the  sexagesimal 
scale,  which  unites  the  advantages  of  the  decimal  and  duodeci- 
mal ;  and,  as  we  have  already  had  occasion  to  mention,  their 
denominations  of  numerical  quantity"  advance  by  multiples  of  10 
and  6  alternately. 

Astronomical  science  seems  to  have  been  the  cliief  portion  of 
the  learning  which  was  handed  down  by  the  Chaldsean  priests  as 
an  hereditary  possession.  Like  the  Egyptians,  they  enjoyed  a 
clear  sky  and  an  unbounded  horizon  ;  and  they  seem  to  have  cul- 
tivated astronomy  independently,  and  even  more  successfully  than 
the  kindred  race.  Tliere  is  reason  to  believe  that  they  mapped 
out  the  Zodiac,  invented  the  nomenclature  which  we  still  use  for 
the  seven  days  of  the  week,*  divided  the  days  into  equinoctial 
hours,  as  distinguished  from  the  hours  of  variable  length  which 
depend  on  sunrise  and  sunset,  and  measured  time  by  the  water- 
clock.  Ptolemy  has  preserved  notices  of  the  great  accuracy  of 
their  observations,  especially  in  the  calculation  of  a  lunar  eclipse 
in  B.C.  721.  Connected  with  their  astronomy  and  star-worship, 
they  had  an  elaborate  system  of  judicial  astrology. 

But  all  these  matters,  however  interesting,  belong  rather  to  a 
scientific  discussion  of  their  antiquities  than  to  a  strictly  histori- 
cal work.  The  reader  who  desires  to  master  the  whole  subject 
must  perase  those  recent  works  to  which  we  have  throughout  ac- 
knowledged our  obligations,  and  which  have  lifted  the  corner  of 
that  veil  which  we  may  hope  to  see  more  completely  withdrawn 
from  this  most  ancient  scene  in  the  history  of  the  world,  when  the 
vast  mass  of  existing  inscriptions  shall  have  been  deciphered. 

by  Mr.  Grote,  in  the  Classical  Museum,  vol.  i.,  and  to  the  articles  on  Weights  and 
Measures,  in  Smith's  Dictionary  of  Antiquities,  2nd  edition. 

*  This  nomenclature  was  based  on  the  idea  that  each  hour  of  the  day  was  governed 
by  a  planet,  and  each  day  by  the  governor  of  its  first  hour ;  and  from  this  one  the 
day  received  its  name.  In  the  Solar  System,  commonly  called  the  "Ptolemaic,"  the 
planets  are  placed  round  the  earth  (as  a  centre),  in  the  following  order,  reckoning 
inwards: — (1)  Saturn,  (2)  Jupiter,  (3)  Mars,  (4)  The  Sun,  (5)  Venus,  (6)  Mercury, 
(7)  The  Moon.  The  Chaldacan  week  seems  to  have  begun  with  Saturday,  its  first 
hour  and  first  day  being  sacred  to  Saturn,  the  star  whose  sphere  embraced  all  the 
rest,  the  symbol  of  the  god  Bel ;  but  it  makes  no  difference  where  we  begin.  Then, 
reckoning  in  the  above  order,  the  25th  hour  falls  to  the  Sun,  and  this  is  the  first 
hour  of  Sunday ;  the  first  of  the  next  day,  Monday,  falls  to  the  Moon ;  of  Tuesday  ' 
to  Mars;  of  Wednesday  to  Mercury  ;  of  Thursday  to  Jupiter  ;  and  of  Friday  to 
Venus.  The  matter  is  fully  discussed  by  Archdeacon  Hare,  in  the  Philological 
Museum,  vol.  i. 


212  THE  ASSYRIAN  MONARCHY.  [Chap.  IX. 

"We  have  now  to  turn  our  eyes  to  the  great  Assyrian  Mon- 
AKCiiY,  whicli  we  find  estaljlislied  on  tlie  ruins  of  the  Ohl  Baby- 
lonian Empire,  at  the  close  of  the  period  of  245  years  (u.c.  1518 
— 1273),  which  Berosus  assigns  to  his  Fifth  Dynasty  of  Arabians. 

Its  original  seat  was  on  the  upper  course  of  the  Tigris,  where 
the  district  about  Nineveh,  in  the  angle  between  the  Tigris  and 
its  confluent,  the  Great  Zab,  preserved  the  ancient  name  in  the 
dialectic  form,  Aturia.  With  the  growing  power  of  the  kingdom, 
the  name  of  Assyria  was  extended  to  the  whole  of  Uj)per  Meso- 
potamia, between  Mounts  Masius  and  Zagros,  on  the  north  and 
east,  the  Euphrates  on  the  west,  and  the  natural  line  which  di- 
vides it  from  the  alluvial  level  on  the  south.  This  region  has  a 
much  more  varied  surface  and  a  cooler  climate  than  the  Chalda^an 
plain.  The  greater  part  of  it  consists  of  undulating  pastures, 
diversified  by  woodlands,  and  watered  by  the  numerous  confluents 
of  the  Tigris  ;  but  the  valleys  furnish  artvble  soil  almost  as  rich  as 
the  Chaldsean  plain  itself;  and  the  natural  products  of  the  two 
regions  are  not  very  difierent.  On  the  north  and  east,  the  coun- 
try assumes  an  Alpine  character. 

The  Book  of  Genesis  contains  the  record  of  the  primeval  foun- 
dation of  this  kingdom  at  Nineveh.*  Though  the  text  is  obscure 
on  one  point,  it  clearly  derives  the  kingdom  of  Asshur  from  that 
of  Nimrod ;  and  all  our  information  tends  to  the  same  result, 
namely  that,  though  the  Assyrian  people  were  Semitic,  the  dy- 
nasty was  Chaldsean.  The  traditions  preserved  by  tlie  Greeks 
make  Ninus  the  son  of  Belus,  and  Semiramis  the  daughter  of 
Derceto,  and  represent  the  Babylonian  religion  as  established  in 
Assyria ;  while  the  local  tradition  of  the  present  day,  with  its 
usual  strange  fidelity  to  hidden  facts,  connects  the  name  of  Nim- 
rod  with  the  ancient  remains  of  Assyria  as  well  as  of  Babylonia. 
We  have  seen  that  the  newly  discovered  records  rei^resent  Assyria 
as  a  vice-royalty  under  the  Chaldccan  empire ;  and  the  subjuga- 
tion of  the  latter  by  the  Arabs  (about  B.C.  1273)  would  give  the 
former  the  fairest  op])ortunity  of  rising  to  an  independent  state.' 
It  is  not  till  much  later  still  that  we  have  trustworthy  accounts 
of  Assyrian  history,  and  we  need  only  glance  at  the  mythical 
legends  with  which  the  Greek  writers  fill  up  the  interval. 

These  legends  represent  the  rapid  rise  of  a  great  conquering 
power,  under  a  mighty  king,  and  a  mightier  queen,  who  derive 
their  lineage  from  the  gods,  and  whose  degenerate  successors  grow 

*  Gen.  ix.  1 1 :  corap.  p.  45. 


LEGENDS  PRESERVED  BY  THE   GREEKS.  213 

feebler  and  feebler  till  the  last  of  them  perishes  by  a  fate  worthy 
of  the  catastrophe  of  a  Greek  tragedy.  Ninus,  son  of  Beliis,  is 
the  "  hero  eponymus "  of  the  Empire.*  The  warrior  queen, 
Semieamis,  daughter  of  the  goddess  Derceto,  is  one  of  those  imper- 
sonations of  masculine  energy  in  a  female  form,  in  which  the  Ori- 
ental imagination  delighted  ;f  while  the  last  of  her  descendants, 
Sakdanapalus,  is  a  man  whose  efl'cminate  character  completes 
the  contrast  between  the  close  of  the  dynasty  and  its  commence- 
ment, but  who  yet  knows  hoAV  to  die  with  courage  worthy  of  a 
king-  The  acts  ascribed  to  these  sovereigns  may  be  related  in  a 
few  words.  Ninns,  having  revolted  from  the  King  of  Babylon, 
whom  he  takes  prisoner  and  puts  to  death,  overruns  Armenia,  Asia 
Minor,  and  the  shores  of  the  Euxine  as  far  as  the  Tanais,  subdues 
the  Medes  and  Persians,  and  makes  war  upon  the  Bactrians. 
Semiramis,  the  wife  of  one  of  the  chief  nobles,  coming  to  the 
camp  before  Bactra,  takes  the  city  by  a  bold  stroke.  Her  courage 
wins  the  love  of  Ninus,  and  she  becomes  his  queen.  On  his  death 
(according  to  one  account,  by  her  own  hand)  she  succeeds  to  the 
throne,  and  undertakes  the  conquest  of  India  with  one  of  those 
armies  which  Oriental  imagination  numbered  by  millions  ;  but  she 
is  utterly  defeated  by  the  Indian  king,  Stabobrates.ij:  To  these  two 
sovereigns  the  Greek  tradition  ascribed  nearly  all  the  great  works 
on  the  banks  of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates.  Niniis  built  Nineveh, 
on  a  scale  so  vast  that  it  might  sur})ass  any  city  that  should  ever 
be  erected ;  and  the  great  pyramid  outside  its  walls  formed  his 
tomb.  To  Semiramis  were  ascribed  the  edifices  of  Babylon,  the 
canals,  the  dykes  along  the  rivers,  and  most  of  the  other  great 
works  in  Babylonia  as  well  as  Assyria.  Her  personal  character 
seems  to  be  the  ideal  of  a  female  demigod  according  to  the  Orien- 
tal standard,  to  which  liistor}'^  exhibits  an  occasional  approach. 
Founded  on  the  cliaracteristics  which  we  see  in  Derceto,  Astarte, 
and  Dido,  she  exhibits  also  some  of  the  qualities  of  Catherine  of 
Russia.  The  stories  of  her  amours  are  doubtless  connected  with 
a  well  known  aspect  of  Oriental  mythology  ;  and,  in  later  times, 
many  of  the  mounds  which  covered  rained  cities  were  called  the 
graves  of  the  lovers  of  Semiramis. 

Ninyas,  §  the  feeble  son  of  Ninus  and  Semiramis,  is  the  head  of 

*  His  name  is  evidently  doiived  from  that  of  Nineveh.     It  does  not  occur  in  Scrip- 
ture or  in  the  native  records ;  for  it  lias  no  connection  with  Nirarod. 
\  Semiramis  (from  S/icm  and  Ham)  signifies  the  exalted  name. 
\  This  name  is  said  to  be  the  Sanskrit  Stavarapatis,  that  is,  Lord  of  the  Terra  Firma. 
§  This  name  is  simply  a  patronymic  from  Niuus. 


214  THE   ASSYRLVN  MONARCHY.  [Chap.  IX. 

a  degenerate  race,  of  wliom  notliing  Avortli  notice  is  recorded  till 
"we  come  to  the  end  of  the  monarchy  and  the  death  of  Sardanapahis. 
This  last  king  of  Assyria,  says  the  legend,  abandoned  all  care  for 
his  falling  em])ire,  and,  shntting  himself  np  in  his  ])alace  ^vith  his 
women,  passed  his  time  in  effeminate  Inxnry.  But  Avhen  Arbaces, 
the  satrap  of  Mediti,  and  Belesis,  the  chief  of  the  Chaldiean 
priests  of  Babylon,  marched  against  him  in  leagued  rebellion,  he 
suddenly  took  the  held,  and,  after  performing  prodigies  of  valour, 
was  defeated,  and  besieged  in  [Nineveh  for  two  years.  When  fur- 
tlier  resistance  became  impossible,  Sardanapalus  collected  all  his 
treasures,  with  his  wives  and  concubines,  on  a  vast  funeral  pile, 
and  then  ascending  it  and  setting  it  on  fire  with  his  own  hand,  he 
perished  in  the  conflagration  of  his  palace.  The  date  assigned  to 
this  catastrojdie  (about  b.c.  876)  is  full  two  centuries  and  a  half 
before  the  fall  of  Nineveh,  nor  did  the  latter  event  take  place 
under  a  Sardanapalus.  If  the  story  has  any  historical  foundation, 
it  represents  a  confusion  of  two  A'ery  different  and  distant  revolu- 
tions. But  in  truth  its  complexion  is  wholly  mythical,  the 
character  and  fate  of  Sardanapalus  representing  those  of  the  andro- 
gynous deity  Sandon,  as  plainly  as  Semiramis  corresponds  to  the 
goddess  Derceto. 

The  kernel  of  historic  fact  enveloped  in  this  legend  is  the  early 
foundation  of  an  independent  Assyrian  kingdom,  at  or  near 
Nineveh,  during  the  period  of  the  Arab  domination  in  Babylonia, 
and  the  spread  of  its  rule,  first  over  the  latter  country,  and  after- 
wards over  the  adjacent  regions;  the  subsequent  decline  of  the 
empire,  though  by  no  means  with  so  rapid  and  steady  a  degene- 
racy, and  its  final  overthrow  by  the  Medes  and  Babylonians. 

Light  has  been  thrown  upon  the  chaos  of  these  traditions,  and 
the  hope  of  historic  certainty  held  forth,  as  in  the  case  of  the  early 
Babylonian  empire,  by  recent  discoveries  in  cuneiform  literature. 
From  these,  compared  with  the  fragments  of  Berosus,  the  notices 
in  Scripture  history,  and  the  scattered  indications  of  the  classical 
writers,  we  learn  to  distinguish  two  great  periods  in  the  history 
of  Assyria,  divided  by  the  first  temporary  establishment  of  Baby- 
lonian independence.  This  epoch  is  that  known  in  chronology 
as  the  Era  of  Ndbonassar^  b.c.  747.  It  separates  the  Assyrian 
kingdom  into  the  Upper  and  Lower  Dynasties,  corresponding 
respectively  to  the  Sixth  and  Seventh  Dynasties  of  Berosus.* 
The  former,  reckoning  from  the  establishment  of  their  power  over 

*  See  the  Table  at  p.  196. 


B.C.  1373—625.]     THE   UPPER  AND   LOWER  DYNASTIES.  2l3 

all  Mesopotamia  by  the  overthrow  of  the  Arab  dynasty  in  Chal 
dsea,  ruled  for  more  than  500  years*  (b.c.  1273-747) ;  the  latter 
for  about  120  years  only  (b.c.  747-025).  f 

The  annals  of  the  Upper  Dynasty,  however  curious  as  an  anti- 
quarian problem  awaiting-  a  fuller  solution,  have  little  to  do  with 
the  general  course  of  history.  It  was,  as  we  have  already  seen, 
at  Kileh-Shergat  (the  ancient  Asshur),  about  GO  miles  south  of 
Nineveh,  that  Shamas-iva,  the  son  of  the  Babylonian  hini;-  Isnii- 
Dagon,  erected  a  temple.  Hence  it  has  been  inferred  that  this  city 
was  the  capital  under  the  Chaldsean  viceroy's;  and  that  it  re- 
mained so  under  the  earliest  independent  kings  of  Assyria  seems 
probable  from  the  appearance  of  their  names  on  bricks  and  frag- 
ments of  pottery  found  among  the  ruins.  These  mere  names,  Bel- 
lush,  Pudil,  Iva-lush,  and  Shalma-bar  or  Shalina-rish,  represent 
all  our  knowledge  of  the  Assyrian  kingdom  during  the  thirteenth 
century  b.c.  ;  and  it  is  admitted  that  even  the  names  are  rendered 
very  doubtful  by  certain  peculiarities  of  the  cuneiform  writing. 

A  second  series  of  six  kings  are  supposed  to  belong  to  the 
succeeding  century  and  a  half  (about  b.c.  1200 — 1050).  Five  of 
their  names  are  found  on  the  famous  Ivileh-Shergat  cylinder,  "  the 
earliest  document  of  a  purely  historical  character  which  has  as  yet 
been  recovered  by  the  researches  pursued  in  Mesopotamia."  % 
Here  we  meet,  for  the  first  time,  with  the  afterwards  famous  name 
of  TiGLATK-PiLESEK  (the  Tiger  Lord  of  Asshur),  §  who  celebrates 
the  deeds  of  his  four  predecessors.  The  first  of  these,  to  whom  he 
ascribes  the  earliest  organization  of  the  empire,  seems  to  have  Nin 
for  the  essential  part  of  his  name,  so  that  in  him  we  may  probably 
trace  the  historic  prototype  of  JSTinus.  The  two  succeeding  kings 
are  named  as  prosperous  rulers  over  Assyria  ;  but  there  is  no  men- 
tion of  any  foreign  conquests  till  the  reign  of  Tiglath-Pileser's 
father,  "  the  powerful  king,  the  subduer  of  foreign  countries,  he 
who  reduced  all  the  lands  of  the  Magian  world."  A  more  definite 
account  is  given  of  the  conquests  of  Tiglath-Pileser  I.  himself, 
during  his  first  five  j^ears.  On  the  north  and  east  he  extended 
his  power  over  the  highlands  of  Armenia  and  Media;  on  the 

*  Herodotus  (i.  95)  gives  the  period  as  520  years ;  Berosus,  more  exactly,  as  526. 
The  longer  chronology  of  Ctesias  is  quite  untrustworthy. 

f  This  date  seems  now  to  be  established  for  the  destruction  of  Nineveh,  instead  of 
the  formerly  received  epoch  of  B.C.  606. 

\  Kawlinson,  Essay  vii.  to  Book  i.  of  Herodotus,  §  7. 

§  Tiglath  or  Diglath,  the  Assyrian  for  tiger,  is  used  both  as  a  royal  title,  and  as 
the  name  of  the  river  Tigris.  The  letters  I  and  r  are  the  most  easily  interchangeable 
of  all. 


216  THE   ASSYRIAN  MONARCHr.  [Chap.  IX. 

north-west  he  pushed  his  conquests  as  far  as  Cappadocia ;  and  on 
the  west  and  south-west  he  appears  to  have  subdued  the  Ara- 
maean tribes  of  Upper  Mesopotamia,  and  those  along  the  course 
of  the  Euphrates  down  to  the  confines  of  Babylonia.*  But  the 
latter  statu,  under  its  king  Merodach-adan-akhi,  was  still  so  power- 
ful as  not  only  to  resist  the  arms  of  Tiglath-Pileser,  but  even  to 
make  a  successful  invasion  of  Assyria.  We  learn  this  interesting 
fact  from  a  monument  set  up  by  Sennacherib,  which  also  seems 
to  fix  the  reign  of  Tiglath-Pileser  L  to  the  end  of  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury, B.c.f  His  son,  Asshur-bani-pal  I.,'  whose  name  occurs  in 
an  inscription  in  the  British  Museum,  closes  the  series  of  the  six 
kings  under  whom  Assyria  seems  to  have  become  an  empire. 

After  a  brief  gap,  the  monuments  supply  us  with  continuous 
information  to  the  end  of  the  dynasty,  a  period  of  just  three  hun- 
dred years,  during  which  eight  kings  handed  down  the  sceptre 
from  father  to  son  in  an  unbroken  line  (b.c.  1050).:];  They  appear 
to  have  reigned  still  at  Kileh-Shergat,  till  the  fifth  of  them  trans- 
ferred the  capital  to  Calah,  another  city  of  the  original  Assyrian 
tetrapolis.§  In  the  name  of  this  king,  Asshur-dani-pal,  we  recog- 
nise the  Sardanapalus  of  the  Greeks ;  but,  as  we  have  seen  in 
the  case  of  Sesostris,  the  historic  prototype  has  no  necessary  iden- 
tity w^ith  the  traditional  personage  to  whom  he  has  furnished  a 
name.  The  true  Sardanapalus  was  the  mightiest  conqueror  of  the 
Upper  Dynasty  ;  and,  instead  of  falling  a  victim  to  the  power  of 
the  King  of  Babylon,  it  was  he  who  first  added  Babylonia  to  the 
Assyrian  Empire.  ||  On  the  opposite  side,  his  conquests  were 
pushed — to  use  the  words  of  his  own  monuments — "  to  Lebanon 
and  the  Great  Sea,"  and  the  kings  of  all  the  chief  Phoenician  cities 
paid  him  tribute.  Among  these,  as  Professor  Rawlinson  thinks, 
was  Ethbaal,  the  father  of  Jezebel. 

Sardanapalus  is  the  first  known  of  the  Assyrian  kings  who  left 
behind  them  those  great  works  of  architecture  which,  lately  dis- 
interred from  their  mounds  of  shapeless  ruin,  have  restored  the 
monarchy  to  its  true  place  in  the  history  of  the  world.  For  while 
these  palaces  confirm  by  their  magnitude  the  traditional  splendour 

*  Respecting  the  claim  of  conquests  in  Egypt  by  Tiglath-Pileser,  and  the  still  earlier 
establishment  there  of  Assyrian  dynasties  (the  Twenty-second  and  Twenty-third),  see 
chap.  vii.  pp.  125,  128. 

f  Professor  Rawlinson  assigns  his  accession  to  B.C.  1113. 

X  Such  is  the  apparent  testimony  of  the  monuments  ;  but  the  average  length  of  the 
reigns  is  too  great  to  be  accepted  without  confirmation. 

g  Its  ruins  arc  at  Khnrml,  forty  miles  to  the  north  of  Kileh-Shergat. 

I  We  shall  sooa  sec,  however,  that  the  conquest  was  not  yet  permanently  effected. 


THE  ASSYRIAN   SCULPTURES.  217 

of  the  Assyrian  kings,  tlie  scenes  pourtrajed  in  sculpture  on  the 
walls  exhibit  a  vivid  picture  of  their  life  in  war  and  peace.  Tlie 
life,  we  mean,  of  the  kings,  not  that  of  the  people,  who  only 
appear  as  fighting  the  battles  of  the  nionarchs,  swelling  tlie  pomp 
of  their  processions,  or  serving  as  beasts  of  burthen  in  the  trans- 
port of  their  colossal  monuments.  TJiose  invaluable  records  of 
private  life,  which  are  preserved  for  us  in  the  wall-paintings  of  the 
Egyptian  tombs,  are  wanting  here ;  for,  as  we  might  have  expect- 
ed, the  scenes  pourtrayed  on  these  palace  walls  are  all  for  the  glori- 
fication of  the  king.  AVe  see  him  clothed  with  the  symbolic 
attributes  and  wielding  the  tlumderl jolts  of  the  gods  whose  names 
he  bore ;  leading  forth  his  armies  to  war,  crossing  great  rivers, 
storming  cities  by  the  aid  of  the  embankment,  the  testudo,  the 
boring  spear,  and  the  battering  ram  ;  returning  in  triumph  with 
hosts  of  captives,  some  of  whom  are  dragged  along  by  rings  which 
pierce  the  lip,  others  are  impaled  in  long  rows,  and  others  flayed 
ali\^.  Elsewhere  he  appears  in  the  chase,  piercing  the  lion  in  a 
close  encounter,  or  pursuing  the  swift  wild-ass ;  and  again  we 
behold  him  superintending  the  transport,  by  multitudes  of  cap- 
tives, of  those  colossal  statues,  half  man  and  half  bull  or  lion, 
which  have  now  been  placed  in  our  own  museums  by  the  energy 
and  tact  with  which  modern  travellers  have  used  free  labour. 

In  the  Assyrian,  as  in  the  Egyptian  sculptures,  the  king  is 
distinguished  from  the  common  herd  by  his  colossal  stature,  the 
fit  emblem  of  his  place  in  those  Asiatic  despotisms,  to  which 
popular  rights  and  liberties  were  unknown.  As  in  the  case  of  the 
Egyptian  monuments,  we  must  be  content  to  refer  the  reader  for 
details  to  the  works  of  Assyrian  antiquaries,  especially  of  Mr. 
Layard,  and  to  the  rich  collection  of  Assyrian  sculptures  which 
the  British  Museum  owes  chiefly  to  him.*  A  great  number  of 
these  sculptures  were  found  in  the  north-west  palace  of  Nimrud, 
which  was  erected  by  Sardanapalus,  and  is  only  sui-passed  by  the 
palace  of  Sennacherib  at  Koyunjik.f  This  king  was  also  the 
builder  of  temples  both  at  Calah  and  Kineveh." 

The  interest  of  these  works  of  architecture  is  surpassed,  at 
least  for  the  student  of  history,  by  a  monument  of  Shalmanubar 

*  This  is  written  for  English  readers ;  but  an  equally  emphatic  mention  is  due  to  the 
labours  of  M.  Botta  and  the  collection  of  Assyrian  antiquities  in  the  Louvre. 

•f-  For  a  full  description  of  these  palaces,  with  restorations,  the  reader  is  referred  to 
the  works  of  Mr.  Layard  and  Professor  Rawlinson.  The  plan,  stated  generally,  com- 
prised a  vast  central  unroofed  hall  (suited  to  the  public  open-air  life  of  the  Orientals) 
surrounded  by  many  chambers,  some  magnificent,  others  very  small  and  dark. 


21S  THE  ASSYRIAN  MONARCHY.        *         [Chap.  IX. 

(or  Slialmancscr),  tlic  son  of  Sardaiiapaliis,  wliicli  was  brought  Lj 
Mr.  Layard  from  Nimrud,  and  deposited  in  the  British  Museum. 
It  is  an  obelisk  in  black  basalt,  about  seven  feet  higli  and  two 
feet  wide  at  the  base,  sculptured  with  a  few  bas-reliefs,  and  an 
inscription  containing  210  lines  of  fine  clear  Avriting.*  It  records 
a  long  series  of  victories  achieved  during  thirty-one  years  of  this 
king's  reign,  and  presents  us  incidentally  with  a  picture  of  the 
political  state  of  Western  Asia  at  the  beginning  of  the  ninth  cen- 
tury B.C.,  the  period  marked  in  Israel  by  the  reign  and  fall  of 
Ahab  and  his  dynasty. 

On  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean,  tlie  Phoenicians  pay  tribute 
to  Assyria.  The  power  of  Syria  is  at  its  height,  upheld  by  a 
great  league  between  the  kings  of  Ilamath  (in  Coele-Syria)  and 
Damascus,f  and  the  confederacy  of  the  Khatti  or  Ilittites,  who 
are  so  often  seen  at  war  with  the  kings  of  Egypt ;  and  the  monu- 
ment confirms  all  that  we  read  in  Scripture  about  the  war-chariots 
of  these  nations,  l^orthern  Syria  and  Upper  Mesopotamia  are 
occupied  by  various  tribes,  all  subject  to  the  Assyrians,  whose 
power  extends  to  the  Tuplai  (Tibareni)  in  Cappadocia.  On  the 
south,  the  "  Accad  "  and  "  Kaldai  "  of  Babylonia,  and  the  Tsukhi 
(Shuhites  ?)  higher  up  the  Euphrates,  own  the  same  subjection. 
Beyond  the  mountain  tribes  of  Zagros,  a  large  part  of  Media 
has  been  subdued  ; :}:  and  the  appearance  of  the  two-humped 
Bactrian  camel  on  the  bas-reliefs  has  been  thought  to  confirm 
the  legend  of  the  conquest  of  Bactria  by  Ninus  and  Semiramis. 
It  may  be,  however,  that  the  animal  then  ranged  further  west- 
ward. The  chief  interest  of  the  record,  however,  consists  in 
its  mention  of  the  earliest  relations  between  Assyria  and  the 
Holy  Land.  The  Black  Obelisk  King  made  several  campaigns 
against  the  Syrian  confederacy  already  mentioned.  In  his  four- 
teenth year  he  defeated  Benhadad  II.  in  three  great  battles  ;  and 
in  his  eighteenth  year  he  followed  Hazael  into  Antilibanus  and 
routed  him  with  great  slaughter,  and  soon  afterwards  the  Syrian 
king  appears  as  his  tributary.  But  the  inscription,  moreover, 
mentions  the  tribute  of  gold  and  silver  brought  to  the  conqueror 
by  "  Yahua,  the  son  of  Khumri,"  a  name  in  which  no  one  can  fail 

*  A  translation  has  been  published  by  Dr.  Hincks  in  the  Dublin  University  Maga- 
zhie  for  October,  1853. 

f  The  name  of  Ben-hadad  has  been  distinctly  made  out,  but  in  the  form  Ben-idri, 
which  corresponds  to  the  Tlhs  "Adep  of  the  LXX.  The  same  interchange  of  (/  and  r  is 
seen  in  the  name  Iladadezer  or  Hadarezer  (2  Sam.  viii.  3 — 12,  compared  with  1  Chron. 
xviii.  3—10). 

X  Whether  the  Persians  are  mcntioued  is  doubtful.     The  numerous  tribes  of  the 


B.C.  850—747.]     PUL,   :MENAHEM,   AND   SEMIRAMIS.  219 

to  recognise  "  Jeliii,  the  son  of  Orari."'  *  The  subsequent  devas- 
tation of  Israel  by  Hazael  may  have  been  an  act  of  revenge  for 
this  submission.  It  was  under  Shabnanubar  that  Nineveh  reco- 
vered the  position  of  a  royal  city,  though  the  king  resided  chiefly 
at  Calah,  where  he  built  that  wliich  is  known  as  the  central  pal- 
ace of  Nimrud. 

The  end  of  Shalmanubar's  reign  is  calculated  as  having  occurred 
about  B.C.  850.  In  the  interval  of  more  than  a  century  to  the 
supposed  date  of  the  end  of  the  dynasty  (b.c.  Y47),  we  have  the 
names  of  only  two  kings,  Shamas-iva,  the  second  son  of  Shalma- 
nubar,  earned  the  succession  by  putting  down  a  great  rebellion  of 
his  elder  brother  Sardanapalus.  He  recorded  on  an  obelisk  the 
campaigns  of  his  first  four  years,  the  most  important  of  which  was 
against  the  king  of  Babylon,  whose  mixed  army  of  Chalda^ans, 
Elamites,  and  Syrians,  was  utterly  defeated  by  Sliamas-iva. 

The  obscure  annals  of  Iva-lush  III.  derive  a  peculiar  interest 
from  their  supposed  connexion  with  the  Jewish  history,  on  the 
one  hand,  and  on  the  other,  with  the  legends  of  Semiramis.  He 
continued  that  course  of  conquest  to  the  west,  which  had  now 
become  the  chief  enterprise  of  the  Assyrian  kings.  The  mention, 
on  one  of  his  monuments,  of  the  Khumri^\  in  connexion  with  the 
people  of  Phoenicia,  Damascus,  and  Idumcea,  as  his  tributaries, 
suggests  his  identification  with  Pcl,  X  who  received  tribute  from 
Menahem,  king  of  Israel,  about  b.c.  Y70.  Another  inscription 
gives  us  the  name  of  Semiramis,  who  thus  emerges  from  the  region 
of  mythology  as  the  wife  of  Iva-lush,  and  apparently  his  associate 
in  the  government.  This  discovery  confirms  the  date  assigned  by 
Herodotus  to  Semiramis,  and  it  is  not  inconsistent  with  his  making 
Semiramis  a  Babylonian  princess.  For  we  have  now  reached  a 
point  at  which  the  history  of  Babylonia  becomes  closely  connected 
with  that  of  Assyria,  as  will  be  seen  presently,  when  we  come  to 
speak  of  the  later  Babylonian  kingdom.  It  will  sufiice  for  tlie 
present  to  say  that  the  probable  connexion  between  the  end  of  the 
Upper  Assyrian  Dynasty  and  the  rise  of  a  new  power  at  Babylon 

Bartsu  or  Partsu,  in  the  mountains  soutli-east  of  Armenia,  might  perhaps  be  the  Par- 
thians,  but  they  are  clearly  the  Persians  in  the  inscriptions  of  Sennacherib. 

*  Tlie  erroneous  patronymic  is  explained  by  Dr.  Hincks  as  referring  to  Jehu'a 
being  king  of  Samaria,  the  city  of  Omri.  Professor  Rawlinson  supposes  that  Jehu 
represented  himself  as  belonging  to  Omri's  dynasty,  a  sort  of  claim  very  common  with 
usurpers. 

f  This  is  interpreted,  as  before,  to  mean  the  people  of  Samaria. 

:}:  The  form  in  the  LXX  is  Phaloch  or  Phalos ;  and  the  Belochus  of  Eusebius  seems 
to  be  the  same. 


220  THE  ASSYRIAN  MONARCHY.  [Chap.  IX 

nnder  Xabonassar  has  caused  the  former  event  to  be  placed  at  the 
"Era  of  Nabonassar"  (b.c.  Y47).* 

The  Lower  Assyrian  Dynasty  begins  with  Tiglatii-Pileser  II. 
Of  the  manner  of  his  accession  we  liave  no  trustworthy  accounts ; 
but  the  absence  of  all  reference  to  his  ancestors  in  his  inscriptions 
is  thought  to  imply  that  he  was  an  usurper,  and  not  of  royal  birth. 
We  possess  tablets  inscribed  with  his  annals  for  seventeen  years, 
in  a  very  fragmentary  state.  Besides  campaigns  in  Upper  Meso- 
potamia, Armenia,  and  Media,  he  carried  on  two  wars  of  much 
historical  importance.  The  first  of  these,  to  which  we  shall  recur 
])resently,  was  against  Babylon  ;  the  other  against  Syria  and 
Israel.  In  the  preceding  chapter  we  saw  how  Aliaz,  king  of 
Judah,  pressed  by  the  confederacy  of  Rezin  and  Pekah,  obtained 
the  aid  of  Tiglath-Pileser,  who  slew  Rezin  and  destroyed  the 
Sj-rian  kingdom  of  Damascus,  and  afterwards  carried  the  eastern 
and  some  of  the  northern  Israelites  into  captivity.  The  Assyrian 
king's  monuments  record  the  expedition  as  made  in  the  eighth 
year  of  his  reign  (b.c.  T^O). 

This  first  captivity  of  Israel  was  soon  followed  by  their  last 
war  with  Shalmanesee,  whose  name  has  not  been  found  on  the 
monuments.  The  capture  of  Samaria,  which  the  Scripture  narra- 
tive appears  to  ascribe  (though  not  positively)  to  Shalmaneser,  is 
claimed  by  his  successor  Saegon,  or  Sargina,  the  father  of  Senna- 
cherib, as  an  exploit  of  the  first  year  of  his  reign.  It  seems 
probable  that  Sargon  was  an  usurper,  who  took  advantage  of 
Shalmaneser's  absence  at  the  siege  of  Samaria  to  seize  the  throne. 
As  he  appears  systematically  to  have  erased  Shalmaneser's  name 
from  the  monuments,  he  is  not  unlikely  to  have  claimed  a  con- 
quest which  the  latter  may  have  been  efiecting  at  the  very  mo- 
ment of  his  own  usurpation.  At  all  events,  the  inscription  serves 
to  fix  the  accession  of  Sargon  to  b.c.  721.  He  reigned  nineteen 
years  ;  and  his  extant  annals  extend  over  fifteen.  They  are  de- 
rived chiefly  from  the  splendid  palace  which  he  built,  as  he  him- 
self tells  us,  near  Nineveh,  and  the  ruins  of  which  at  Khorsabad 
have  supplied  the  museum  of  the  Louvre  with  its  choicest  remains 
of  Assyrian  antiquity.f 

These  monuments  show  Sargon  to  have  been  one  of  the  greatest 

*  The  difficulties  as  to  the  chronology  are  discussed  by  Professor  Kawlinson  {Herod. 
Essay  vii.  to  Book  i.).     The  date  is  at  all  events  correct  within  twenty  years. 

f  Khorsabad  is  15  miles  N.  by  E.  of  Koyunjik^  the  site  of  the  true  Xinevch. 
Sargon  gave  the  place  his  o.vn  name,  which  it  retained  down  to  the  Arab  conquest,  in 
the  form  of  Dur  S  rgina. 


B.C.  703.]  REIGN  OF   SENNACHERIB.  331 

of  Assyrian  conquerors.  Immediately  after  the  capture  of  Samaria, 
he  marched  in  person  against  Babylon,  and  perhaps  set  Merodach- 
Ba'ladan  on  the  throne.  At  a  later  period  we  find  him  making  war 
with  the  Chaldseans,  and  driving  Merodach-Baladan  into  banish- 
ment. On  the  south-west,  his  defeat  of  the  Philistines  in  a  great 
battle  at  Eaphia,  and  his  capture  of  their  five  cities,  laid  open  the 
frontier  of  Egypt,  wdiose  king  paid  tribute  to  Sargon  *  (b.c.  715). 
Later  in  his  reign  he  took  Ashdod  f  and  Tyre,  and  received  tribute 
from  tlie  Greeks  of  Cyprus,  where  a  statue  of  Sargon,  set  up  at 
Idalium,  proves  that  he  made  an  expedition  into  the  island,  either 
in  person  or  by  his  generals.  He  continued  the  wars  of  his  pre- 
decessors in  the  mountainous  regions  of  the  north-west  and  north  ; 
while,  on  the  east,  the  conquest  of  Media,  so  often  attempted  be- 
fore, supplied  him  with  a  territory  in  which  to  plant  the  captives 
from  Samaria.  The  closer  intercourse  of  Assyria  with  Egypt  at 
this  period  is  marked  by  a  decidedly  Egyptian  influence  on  the 
architecture,  pottery,  glass-making,  and  other  arts  of  Assyria.:}; 

The  reign  of  Sennachekib,  the  son  of  Sargon  (b.c.  702 — 680), 
is  at  once  the  most  interesting,  in  an  historical  point  of  view,  of 
all  in  the  Assyrian  annals,  and  that  at  which  the  empire  reached 
the  highest  pitch  of  prosperity.  Besides  all  that  we  read  of  him 
in  Scripture,  and  the  brief  notices  of  the  ancient  historians,  we 
possess  his  own  annals  for  the  first  eight  years  of  his  reign.  §  He 
restored  Nineveh  to  its  position  as  the  royal  residence ;  rebuilt 
the  city  and  its  palaces  by  the  labour  of  hosts  of  captives,  and 
with  materials  contributed  by  all  the  subject  kings  and  states ; 
and  added  a  palace  exceeding  in  size  and  magnificence  all  that 
had  been  erected  by  former  kings.  It  was  amidst  the  ruins  of 
this  edifice  at  Koyunjik  that  Mr.  Layard  made  the  most  important 
of  his  discoveries  ;  and  in  the  sculptures  that  lined  its  walls  we  see 
the  life  of  Assyria  when  it  was  most  flourishing. 

A  second  palace  built  by  Sennacherib  is  buried  beneath  the 
mound,  by  the   name    of  which  tradition  bears  her  witness  to 

*  This  king,  who  is  simply  called  Pharaoh  in  the  inscription,  was  either  Sabaco  I. 
or  Sabaco  II.  of  the  twenty-fifth  or  Etliiopian  dynasty.  The  cartouche  of  one  of  the 
Sabacos,  evidently  the  impression  of  a  ring,  has  been  found  at  Koyunjik,  side  by  side 
with  the  seal  of  an  Assyrian  king,  probably  in  ratification  of  a  treaty. 

f  Compare  Isaiah  xx. 

\  The  earliest  known  specimen  of  transparent  glass  in  Assyria  is  a  small  bottle 
found  at  Nimrud,  bearing  the  name  of  Sargon. — Layard's  Nineveh  and  Babylon, 
p.  197. 

§  A  separate  tablet  mentions  his  twenty-second  year ;  and  various  proofs  concur  to 
show  that  this  was  the  true  length  of  his  reign. 


222  THE   ASSYRIAN   MONARCHY.  [Chap.  IX. 

Jonah's  mission  to  the  Ninevites.*  Like  his  predecessors,  Senna- 
cherib was  engaged  in  constant  wars  with  the  tribes  round  the 
northern  and  eastern  frontiers  of  Assyria ;  but  by  far  the  most 
interesting  events  in  his  annals  are  the  campaigns  against  Babylon 
and  the  countries  of  the  west.  Of  the  former  we  shall  speak  pres- 
ently :  the  latter  are  recorded  with  a  minuteness  which  affords 
the  most  interesting  parallel  between  sacred  and  secular  history. 

It  was  in  the  third  year  of  his  reign  (b.c.  700)  that,  having  pre- 
viously subdued  Babylonia  and  Upper  Mesopotamia,  the  king 
crossed  the  Euphrates,  and  received  the  submission  of  the  cities  of 
Syria,  Phoenicia,  Philistia,  and  Idumsea,  in  most  cases  without  a 
struiTirle  :  Judaea  seems  to  have  been  regarded  as  already  in  com- 
plete  subjection.  His  successes  in  Philistia  provoked  the  resist- 
ance of  the  kings  of  Egypt,  who  were  the  dependent  allies  of  the 
King  of  Meroe  ;  f  and  Ilezekiah  seems  to  have  availed  himself  of 
their  advance  to  show  symptoms  of  revolt,  by  encouraging  a  rising 
among  the  Philistines.  Having  utterly  defeated  the  Egyptians 
near  Lachish,  and  taken  that  city  and  Libnah,  Sennacherib  pro- 
ceeded to  chastise  Jud?ea,  taking  forty-six  fenced  cities,  and  carry- 
ing off  200,000  captives.  On  his  laying  siege  to  Jerusalem, 
Hezekiah  agreed  to  pay  a  tribute  of  300  talents  of  silver  and 
thirty  talents  of  gold,  besides  rich  presents.  His  submission  was 
accepted  ;  but  he  was  deprived  of  a  part  of  his  land,  which  was 
given  to  the  princes  of  Ashdod,  Ekron,  and  Gaza.  Whether  after 
all  these  successes  the  army  of  the  Assyrian  came  to  the  disastrous 
end  recorded  in  Scripture,  or  wdiether,  as  seems  more  probable, 
that  catastrophe  closed  a  second  expedition  against  Egypt  and 
Judeea,  is  still  a  question.  In  any  case  we  should  not  expect  so 
calamitous  an  event  to  be  mentioned  in  the  royal  annals.  ]^or  is 
there  any  ground  for  supposing  that  the  death  of  Sennacherib 
followed  immediately  on  his  flight  home.  The  Scripture  narrative 
says  expressly  that  "  he  returned  and  dwelt  at  Nineveh,"  and  his 
monuments  attest  that  he  continued  to  decorate  his  palaces  and 
to  make  war  upon  the  tribes  of  Armenia  and  Media.  It  was 
among  the  former  that  his  two  sons  found  a  refuge,  after  they  had 
murdered  their  fsither  in  the  temple  of  Nisroch,  a  deed  respecting 
which  the  monuments  are  again  naturally  silent. 

Sennacherib  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Esak-haddon  (b.c.  GSO), 

*  Kebh'-Yunus,  that  is,  the  ProjJiet  Jonah.  This  is  not  the  place  to  enter  into  the 
question  of  Jonah's  date. 

f  This  statement  throws  light  on  the  probable  condition  of  Egypt  under  the  Ethiopian 
Dynasty.     See  chap.  vii.  p.  127. 


B.C.  680—625.]        RAPID   DECLINE   OF   ASSYRIA.  223 

the  Assliur-akii-iddina  of  the  inscriptions,  who  reigned  in  person 
at  Babylon  as  well  as  Nineveh.'^  His  inscriptions  claim  victories 
over  tlie  Egyptians,  and  over  the  old  enemies  on  the  confines  of 
Assyria.  He  was  probably,  as  we  have  seen,  the  king  who  colo- 
nized the  waste  lands  of  Samaria  with  settlers  from  Babylonian 
cities,  a  proceeding  which  implies  the  treatment  of  Babylonia,  to 
some  extent,  as  a  conquered  province.  This  agrees  with  the  men- 
tion of  a  war  in  Susiana  against  a  son  of  Merodach-Baladan.  Like 
his  two  predecessors,  Esar-haddon  was  a  magnificent  builder. 
Besides  extensive  repairs  of  former  edifices,  he  erected  the  south- 
west palace  of  Nimrud,  and  one  of  those  at  Nebbi-Yunus,  which 
he  styles  "  the  palace  of  the  pleasures  of  all  the  year,"  His  in- 
scriptions record  the  aid  he  received  in  these  works  from  the 
kings  of  Syria,  Judah,  and  Phoenicia,  and  even  from  the  princes 
of  the  Greek  cities  of  Cyprus,  not  only  in  materials  but  in  the 
services  of  skilled  artists.  The  bas-reliefs  of  his  palaces  show  that 
freer  and  more  graceful  style  which  had  already  begun  to  modify 
the  old  archaic  stiffness  of  Greek  art.  We  have  already  seen  the 
same  influences  at  work  in  Egypt  under  Psammetichus,  who  was 
contemporary  with  the  later  years  of  Esar-haddon.  But  in  As- 
syria, as  in  many  other  countries,  the  fine  arts  culminated  just  as 
the  power  of  the  empire  was  dying  out,  under  Sardanapalus 
(Asshurbani-pal  II.),  the  son  of  Esar-haddon. 

The  causes  of  the  rapid  decline  of  the  Assyrian  power  maj'  be 
traced  in  the  nature  of  the  empire,  as  it  is  exliibited  to  us  in  the 
records  of  the  Lower  Dynasty,  and  especially  when  at  its  height, 
under  Sai'gon,  Sennacherib,  and  Esar-haddon.  Xominally  includ- 
ing the  whole  of  Western  Asia  from  the  river  Halys  and  the  Me- 
diterranean to  the  Desert  of  Iran,  and  from  the  Caspian  and  the 
mountains  of  Armenia  to  Arabia  and  the  Persian  Gulf,  it  was 
utterly  wanting  in  unity,  even  of  administration.  It  embraced  a 
number  of  small  kingdoms,  and  of  cities  and  tribes  under  many 
petty  chieftains  who  were  bound  to  pay  tribute  and  render  personal 
homage  to  the  sovereign,  and  to  give  a  free  passage  to  his  troops.f 
But  this  duty  was  limited  by  the  king's  power  to  enforce  it ;  nor 
would  the  yoke  be  made  more  welcome  by  the  severe  measures 
used  to  suppress  revolt, — the  destruction  of  cities  and  the  cruel 
execution  of  their  defenders, — forays  in  which  men  and  cattle  Avere 
carried  ofl'by  tens  and  hundreds  of  thousands, — the  deportation  of 
whole  nations,  to  labour  as  captives  on  the  king's  buildings,  or  to 

*  This  accounts  for  Manasseh's  being  carried  captive  to  Babylon,  2  Ghron.  xxxiii.  11. 
\  Military  service  iu  the  armies  of  Assyria  does  not  seem  to  have  been  required. 


224  THE  ASSYRIAN  MONARCHY.  [Chap.  IX. 

mourn  as  exiles  beside  the  waters  of  a  strange  land.  Tlie  Ass_yrian 
armies  marched  back  when  they  had  inflicted  these  chastisements, 
and  there  was  no  military  occupation  of  the  conquered  countries.* 
The  fabric  of  the  empire  was  a  web  of  Penelope,  ever  undoing  and 
beginning  again.  We  have  seen  even  the  most  powerful  kings 
constantly  renewing  the  same  wars  with  the  same  frontier  tribes  ; 
and  the  accession  of  a  weak  ruler  was  the  signal  for  the  resolu- 
tion of  the  empire  into  its  independent  elements.  The  want  of 
cohesion,  however,  among  these  scattered  elements,  secured  the 
central  government  from  a  speedy  overthrow  ;  to  eifect  this  needed 
some  concentrated  power  from  without.  Egypt  threatened  more 
than  once  to  do  the  work ;  but  the  distance  was  too  great,  and  her 
strength  was  unequal  to  the  task.  Babylon,  the  nearest  neighbour 
of  Assyria,  was  in  a  state  of  chronic  disaffection,  but  her  attempts 
at  open  revolt  were  speedily  put  down.  At  length  a  new  power 
comes  upon  the  stage,  alien  from  Assyria  in  race  and  religion,  and 
recently  consolidated  into  a  great  nation.  We  have  seen,  from  the 
very  first,  that  the  range  of  Mount  Zagros,  bordering  the  Tigris 
and  Euphrates  valley  on  the  east,  divided  its  Semitic  and  Ilamite 
nations  from  the  Aryan  tribes  of  the  tableland  of  Iran.  The 
Medes,  who  occupied  the  latter  region,  have  often  been  mentioned 
among  the  peoples  conquered  by  successive  Assyrian  kings ;  but 
these  appear  to  have  been  only  partial  conquests  made  from  time 
to  time  over  separate  tribes.  We  have  yet  to  trace  the  history  of 
the  great  Median  nation,  which,  consolidated  by  Cyaxares,  be- 
came the  instrument  for  overthrowing  the  power  of  Assyria,  and 
even  blotting  out  her  existence.f 

The  interval  from  the  death  of  Esar-haddon  to  this  catastrophe 
is  exceedingly  obscure.  The  Assyrian  monuments  have  as  yet 
sup]^iied  the  names  of  only  two  kings.  Asshur-bani-pal  is  sup- 
posed to  have  reigned  from  about  B.C.  6G0  to  about  e.g.  6-iO.  The 
narrow  limits  of  liis  recorded  wars,  in  Susiana  against  the  grand- 
son of  Merodach-Baladan,  and  in  Armenia,  indicate  those  within 
which  the  empire  was  contracted.  His  successor,  Asshur-emit-ili 
is  only  known  as  tlie  builder  of  a  palace  at  Nimrud,  the  compara- 
tive meanness  of  which  gives  a  sign  of  the  degradation  of  the 
monarchy.  One  cause  of  its  rapid  decline  may  be  found  in  that 
great  irruption  of  the  Scythians  into  Western  Asia,  of  which  we 
shall  have  to  speak  further  in  the  next  chapter. 


*  How  such  countries  were  left  to  themselves,  may  be  seen  from  the  proceedings 
of  Hezekiah  and  Josiah  in  Northern  Palestine.  f  See  Chapter  x. 


B.C.  625.]  THE  FALL   OF   NINEVEH.  225 

From  the  former  of  these  two  kings  the  Greek  writers,  by  a 
very  natural  confusion,  obtained  the  name  of  that  Sardanapahis, 
wliose  fate  they  have  told  so  romantically.  Berosus  is  said  to  have 
named  Saraciis  as  the  king  under  whom  Nineveh  was  destroyed  ; 
but  it  remains  doubtful  whether  he  is  identical  with  Assliur-emit- 
ili,  and  indeed  whether  the  latter  was  the  last  king  of  Assyria. 

Of  tlie  events  attending  the  fall  of  Nineveh  and  the  empire  the 
monuments  contain  no  record,  beyond  tlie  incontestable  evidence 
of  their  own  condition.  "  Calcined  alabaster,  masses  of  charred 
wood  and  charcoal,  colossal  statues  split  through  with  the  heat,  are 
met  with  in  all  parts  of  the  Ninevite  mounds,  and  attest  the 
veracity  of  prophecy."  *  All  bears  witness  to  a  conflagration  of 
the  palaces  which  could  only  have  attended  on  an  utter  destruc- 
tion of  the  monarchy,  and  tends  so  far  to  confirm  the  details  which 
we  only  possess  on  the  doubtful  authority  of  Ctesias,  and  the  more 
trustworthy  narrative  which  Abydenus  professes  to  have  boiTOwed 
from  Berosus.f  lie  tells  us  that  Saracus,  being  alarmed  by  the 
news  of  forces  advancing  against  him  from  the  sea,:{:  sent  Nabo- 
polassar  to  take  the  command  at  Babylon.  The  latter  seized  the 
opportunity  to  rebel,  and  formed  an  alliance  with  the  Median 
king.§  The  united  armies  of  the  Medes,  Chaldseans,  and  Baby- 
lonians marched  against  Nineveh  ;  and  Saracus,  after  a  brief 
defence,  retired  to  his  palace,  to  which  he  set  fire  with  his  own 
hand,  and  perished,  like  Zirari,||  in  the  conflagration,  Ctesias 
assigns  a  duration  of  two  years  to  the  siege,  and  ascribes  its  suc- 
cess to  an  inundation  of  the  Tigris,  which  swept  away  a  part  of 
the  city  wall.  The  prophet  Nahum  seems  to  indicate  an  entrance 
by  the  river  gates,  such  as  led  to  the  capture  of  Babylon  by  Cyrus. 
A  simihar  false  security  may  easily  have  led  to  a  similar  catastrophe. 
The  destruction  of  the  empire  and  its  capital  were  alike  complete. 
Nineveh  was  not  even  permitted  to  become,  like  Babylon  in  later 
times,  a  capital  of  the  conquering  monarchy.  Her  ruin  appears  to 
have  been  hastened  by  the  nature  of  the  city,  which  seems  only  to 
have  deserved  tlie  name  in  virtue  of  her  palaces  and  temples.    The 

*  Rawlinson,  Herod,  vol.  i.  p.  488;  Layard,  Nineveh  and  Babylon,  pp.  71,  103, 
121,  &c. ;  Nahum  ii.  13,  iii.  13,  15.  The  predictions  of  the  fall  of  Nineveh  and  Assyria 
by  Nahum  and  Zephaniah  are  so  exact  as  to  have  a  real  historic  value. 

f  See  the  fragment  in  Eusebius,  Chron.  part.  i.  c.  9. 

\  Rawlinson  takes  these  for  the  Chaldaeans  and  Susianians,  who  are  known  to  have 
been  in  revolt  during  the  preceding  reign. 

§  Both  Abydenus  and  Polyhistor  call  this  king  Astyages ;  but  the  order  of  the 
Median  history  proves  that  it  was  Cyaxares. 

II   1  Kings  xvi.  18. 

VOL.  I. — 15 


^36  THE  ASSYRIAN  MONARCHY.  [Chap.  IX 

great  mounds  Avhicli  are  scattered  over  a  space  of  about  sixty  miles 
from  north  to  south  along  the  course  of  the  Tigris,  above  the  con- 
fluence of  the  Great  Zab,  are  found  to  contain  the  remains  of 
palaces  and  temples,  within  enclosures  as  lai'ge  as  some  cities. 
The  spaces  within  these  enclosures  are  strewn  with  fragments  of 
pottery  and  other  objects,  undoubted  signs  of  human  habitation, 
but  all  traces  of  private  houses  have  vanished.  As  the  kings 
glorified  only  themselves  in  their  sculptures,  so  tliey  built  for 
themselves  alone ;  and  the  liouses  of  unburnt  brick  which  were 
scattered  probably  far  and  wide  about  their  palaces,  would  soon 
return  to  dust.  This  circumstance  has  made  it  almost  impossible 
to  identify  the  true  site  of  Nineveh,  the  knowledge  of  which  had 
been  lost  as  early  as  the  time  of  Herodotus.  ISTo  traces  remain  (as 
at  Babylon)  of  the  vast  enclosures  of  the  immense  city  which  the 
ancient  writers  ascribed  to  Ninus.  It  seems  most  probable  that 
the  people  dwelt  in  scattered  villages  among  the  several  groups  of 
palaces  built  by  successive  kings  on  elevated  platfonns,  and  that 
these  latter  alone  were  fortified.  Of  these  edifices  four  chief  groups 
are  marked  by  as  many  mounds,  on  or  near  the  left  bank  of  the 
Tigris,  not  including  Kileh-Shergat  (the  supposed  ancient  Asshur), 
which  lies  on  the  right  bank,  much  farther  to  the  south.  These 
are  Niinrud  (Calah)  above  the  confluence  of  the  Great  Zab,  with 
the  smaller  mound  of  Selamiyeh  a  little  further  to  the  north  ; 
Koyunj'tJc  and  Nebhj-  T'unus,  opposite  Mosul ;  Shereef-K/ian, 
about  five  and  a  half  miles  further  north  ;  and  Khorsabad,,  about 
ten  miles  N^.  by  E.  of  Shereef-Khan.  Considering  the  scattered  mode 
of  building  Oriental  cities,  it  is  by  no  means  improbable  that  all 
this  area  may  have  been  included  in  the  widest  extent  of  the  name 
of  Nineveh,  and  such  a  supposition  would  explain  the  description 
of  the  prophet  Jonah  :  "  Now  Nineveh  was  an  exceeding  great  city 
of  three  days'  journey ^  *  But  the  name  must  have  had  originally 
a  more  definite  meaning  ;  and  in  this  sense  it  probably  belonged 
to  the  group  of  mounds  opposite  Mosul^  which  was  at  all  events 
the  Nineveh  of  Sennacherib's  great  palace.  Here  the  mounds  of 
Koyunjik  and  Nebhy-  Yunus  are  enclosed  within  a  well-marked 
line  of  once  strong  fortifications,  the  circuit  of  which  is  about 
seven  and  a  half  miles,  quite  large  enough  for  a  primitive  city, 
though  far  smaller  than  the  Nineveh  of  tradition. 

We  must  leave  to  the  writers  on  Assyrian  antiquities  the  de- 

*  Jonah  iii.  3.  That  this  is  no  mere  hyperbole  is  evident  from  the  specific  state- 
ment that  "  Jonah  began  to  enter  into  the  city,  a  day's  journci/y^  in  his  fii'st 
preaching. 


ASSYEIAN  CIYILIZATIOK  227 

scription  of  the  state  of  art  and  civilization  attested  by  the  As* 
Syrian  remains.  The  whole  is  summed  up  by  Professor  Rawlin- 
son  in  the  following  terms  :  "  With  much  that  was  barbaric 
still  attaching  to  them,  with  a  rude  and  inartificial  government, 
savage  passions,  a  debasing  religion,  and  a  general  tendency  to 
materialism,  they  were,  towards  the  close  of  the  empire,  in  all 
the  arts  and  appliances  of  life,  very  nearly  on  a  par  with  our- 
selves ;  and  thus  their  history  furnishes  a  warning,  which  the 
records  of  nations  constantly  repeat,  that  the  greatest  material 
prosperity  may  coexist  with  the  decline — and  herald  the  downfall 
— of  a  kingdom."  * 

It  is  now  time  to  look  back  to  the  former  seat  of  empire  on  the 
lower  course  of  the  Euphrates,  and  to  trace  the  steps  by  which  old 
Babylon  regained  the  imperial  state,  which  she  was  destined  to 
enjoy  but  for  a  comparatively  short  time.  Her  eclipse,  over- 
shadowed even  when  not  entirely  subdued  by  Assyria,  lasted  for 
about  650  years  (b.c.  1273 — 625) ;  her  recovered  greatness,  sur- 
passing all  her  predecessors,  under  the  dynasty  of  Nabopolassar, 
j)erished  before  the  power  of  Persia  after  only  87  years  (b.c.  625 — 
538).  But  before  the  beginning  of  this  last  period,  she  had  risen 
into  importance  under  the  Lower  Assyrian  Dynasty,  the  accession 
of  which  we  have  seen  to  coincide  with  the  new  state  of  things 
at  Babylon  marked  by  the  era  of  Nabonassar  (b.c.  747).  A  few 
words  will  suffice  to  describe  what  is  known  of  Babylon  under 
the  two  Assyrian  dynasties,  as  a  preface  to  the  brief  and  brilliant 
period  of  her  true  historical  importance. 

The  confusion  between  the  earliest  history  of  Ass^^ria  and 
Babylonia,  in  the  Greek  traditions,  is  but  very  partially  unravelled 
by  the  Assyrian  records.  We  only  leam  from  them,  that  when 
the  Assyrians  obtained  that  suj^remacy  which  the  Arabs  had 
wrested  from  Babylon,  the  latter  did  not  sink  into  a  mere  subject 
condition.  Unfortunately  the  native  records  of  the  period  ai-e  lost, 
having  been  destroyed,  Berosus  tells  us,  by  Nabonassar,  and  thus 
the  Assyrian  history  absorbs  that  of  both  states.     But  even  the 

*  Rawlinson's  Herodotus,  Appendix  to  Book  i.,  Essay  vii.,  vol.  i.  p.  499.  In  the 
great  uncertainty  which  still  besets  the  science  of  cuneiform  interpretation,  we  have 
closely  followed  the  system  developed  in  the  above  Essay,  as  upon  the  whole  the  most 
probable  and  consistent.  Essays  and  discussions  upon  new  discoveries  made  from  time 
to  time  are  contained  in  several  recent  numbers  of  the  Athenwum.  Among  the  writers 
whose  views  are  either  wholly  or  chiefly  independent  of  the  science  of  cuneiform  inter- 
pretation, the  most  important  are  Niebuhr,  in  his  Lectures  on  Ancient  History,  and 
Mr.  Grote,  in  his  History  of  Greece, 


£28  THE   LATER  BABYLONIAN  EMPIRE.  [Chap.  LX. 

Assyrian  records  of  tlie  Upper  Dynasty  represent  Babylon  as  a 
very  powerful  and  troublesome  neighbour  under  lier  native  kings, 
"who  are  even  seen  as  successful  invaders  of  the  northern  empire. 
Her  position  is,  in  one  word,  truly  described  by  Professor  Rawlin- 
son  : — "  During  the  whole  time  of  the  Upper  Dynasty  in  As- 
s^'ria,  she  was  clearly  the  most  powerful  of  all  those  kingdoms  by 
which  the  Assyrian  empire  was  surrounded."  * 

The  Era  of  Nabonassak  (b.c.  74Y)  seems  to  mark  a  political 
change  at  Babylon,  but  of  what  nature  is  quite  uncertain.  Its 
coincidence  with  the  beginning  of  the  Lower  Dyuasty  in  Assyria, 
and  the  mention  of  Seniiramis  as  connected  with  both  dynasties  at 
this  epoch,  according  to  the  computations  of  Herodotus,  have  sug- 
gested the  theory  that  the  old  line,  expelled  by  Tiglath-Pileser, 
established  itself  anew  at  Babylon ;  but  this  is  no  more  than  a 
conjecture.  The  successors,  whom  Ptolemy's  Canon  assigns  to 
Nabonassar  are  of  no  importance  till  we  reach  the  fifth  king, 
Mardocempalus,  the  Mekodach-Baladan  of  Scripture,  who  sent 
an  embassy  of  congratulation  to  Hezekiah  on  his  recovery  from 
sickness.  This  step  implies  designs  on  behalf  of  the  independ- 
ence of  Babylon,  for  which  the  Assyrian  inscriptions  prove  that 
Merodach-Baladan  maintained  a  struggle  against  the  mightiest 
kings  of  Assyria,  Sargon  and  Sennacherib.  Diiven  from  Baby- 
lon by  the  former  (b.c.  721),  he  appears  to  have  recovered  his 
throne  only  to  be  finally  expelled  by  Sennacherib  (b.c.  702),  who 
inflicted  on  Babylonia  all  the  cruelties  that  marked  an  Assyrian 
conquest,  and  set  over  the  kingdom  a  viceroy  named  Belibus. 
The  party  of  Merodach-Baladan,  however,  found  supi)ort  from  the 
King  of  Susiania,  till  Sennacherib  defeated,  him  and  overran 
Babylonia  a  second  time,  in  his  fourth  year  (b.c.  699). 

An  ensuing  period  of  confusion  is  ended  by  Esar-haddon's 
assumption  in  his  own  person  of  the  government  of  Babylonia 
(b.c.  680 — 667).  He  had  still  to  maintain  war  against  the  sons 
of  Merodach-Baladan  and  the  Susianians.  The  final  suppression 
of  resistance  furnishes  a  probable  reason  for  his  reverting  to  the 
plan  of  governing  by  viceroys,  which  seems  to  have  continued  till 
the  last  days  of  the  Assyrian  kingdom,  though  we  are  quite  igno- 
rant of  the  precise  relation  in  which  the  rulers  of  Babylon  stood 
to  the  latest  kings  of  Assyria. 

During  all  this  period  of  subjection,  the  old  Chaldseans  never 
lost  the  spirit  of  independence  ;  and  the  decline  of  Assyria,  threat- 

*  Appendix  to  Book  i.  of  Herodotus,  Essay  viii. 


B.C.  625.]  ACCESSION  OF   NABOPOLASSAR.  229 

ened.  by  the  growth  of  the  Median  empire,  at  last  gave  tliem  tlie 
opportunity  of  emancipation.  The  circumstances  under  which 
Babylon  co-operated  with  the  Medes  in  the  last  attack  on  Nine- 
veh are  only  known  by  a  doubtful  tradition  preserved  by  the 
Greek  historian  Abydeuus,  the  outline  of  which  has  already  been 
related.  But,  whatever  may  have  been  the  mode  by  which  Nabopo- 
lassar  obtained  his  power,  there  is  no  doubt  that  he  joined  with 
the  Medes  in  the  capture  of  Nineveh,  and  received  as  his  share  of 
the  spoil  the  undisputed  possession  of  Babylonia,  where  he  founded 
his  short  but  brilliant  dynasty  (e.g.  625).  The  purely  Babylonian 
names  of  Nabopolassar  (Xabu-pal-uzur),  Nebuchadnezzar,*  and 
other  kings  of  the  line,  and  several  circumstances  of  their  history, 
coniirm  the  accuracy  of  Berosus  in  calling  them  C^ialdseans.f 
Their  accession  was  therefore  a  restoration,  though  to  a  much 
wider  dominion,  of  the  old  Hamite  race,  after  its  long  ecHpse  by 
the  Semitic  Assyrians — a  revolution  not  altogether  unlike  that  by 
which  Ardshir  long  afterwards  wrested  the  Persian  empire  from 
the  dominion  of  the  Parthians. 

This  later  Babylonian  dynasty  at  no  time  held  the  undivided 
supremacy  of  Western  Asia.  The  wider  empire  of  the  Medes 
enclosed  it  on  the  north  and  east  like  a  great  belt,  reaching  from 
the  Persian  Gulf  to  the  river  Halys  in  Asia  Minor,  to  the  west  of 
which  the  Lydian  kingdom  was  approaching  the  climax  of  its 
power.:}:  Nineveh  itself,  with  the  upper  course  of  the  Tigris,  fell 
to  the  share  of  the  Mede  ;  but,  while  he  pushed  forward  his  arms 
in  Asia  Minor,  the  whole  region  west  of  the  Euphrates,  as  far  as 
Egypt,  lay  open  to  Babylonian  ambition. 

The  fall  of  Nineveh  seems  at  once  to  have  transferred  to  Baby- 
lon at  least  a  nominal  supremacy  as  far  as  the  frontier  of  Egypt. 
But  the  latter  power  had  been  restored  to  new  strength  by  the 
dynasty  founded  by  Psammetichus  ;  and  she  soon  came  forward 
to  dispute  with  Babylon  the  possession  of  Syria  and  Palestine. 

Meanwhile  Nabopolassar  consolidated  his  new  kingdom  during 
a  reign  of  one-and-twenty  years  (b.c.  625 — 604).  It  is  a  reasonable 
supposition  that  his  share  of  the  captives  carried  away  from 
Nineveh  would  at  once  increase  the  population  of  his  kingdom 

*  These  names,  like  Xabonassar,  are  derived  from  the  god  Nebo. 

\  They  form  his  Eighth  Dynasty  of  six  Chaldsan  kings;  see  p.  196.  Among  the 
circumstances  referred  to  in  the  text  is  the  complete  ascendancy  of  the  Chaldaean  caste 
at  the  court  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  as  seen  in  the  book  of  Daniel. 

X  Respecting  the  rise,  growth,  and  relations  to  each  other  of  the  Median  and  Lydian 
empires,  see  chapter  x. 


230  THE   LATER  BABYLONIAN  EMPIRE.  [Chap.  IX. 

and  supply  tlie  labour  to  conitnenee  those  great  works  at  Baby- 
lon which  were  completed  by  Nebuchadnezzar.  Nabopolassar 
took  part,  as  the  ally  of  Media,  in  the  war  between  Cyaxares  and 
tlie  Lydian  King  Alyattos,  and  peace  is  said  to  have  been  re- 
stored by  the  mediation  of  a  prince  of  Babylon  (b.c.  610). 

About  the  same  t.me  (b.c.  611),  Neko  ascended  the  throne 
of  Egypt,  a  king  eager  to  restore  both  the  prosperity  of  the 
Pharaohs  at  home  and  their  dominion  abroad.  His  plan  was  to 
secure  the  frontier  of  the  Euphrates  by  a  rapid  advance.  We  have 
seen  how  Josiah  fell  at  Megiddo  in  attempting  to  oppose  his 
march  (b.c.  608)  ;  and  he  advanced,  apparently  without  further 
resistance  to  Carchemish  on  the  Euphrates.  Having  garrisoned 
that  place,  Neko  returned  in  triumph,  and  set  up  a  new  king  at 
Jerusalem,  as  a  tributary  to  himself.  But  in  three  years,  these 
conquests  were  surrendered  to  the  military  prowess  of  Kebuchad- 
nezzar,  whom  his  father  Nabopolassar  sent  against  the  Egyptians. 
Having  defeated  Neko  in  a  great  battle  at  Carchemish,  he  pressed 
forward  to  Jerusalem,  received  the  submission  of  Jehoiakim,  and 
reconquered  all  the  lands  to  the  borders  of  Egypt  (b.c.  605 — 4). 
The  death  of  iN^abopolassar,  during  this  campaign,  recalled  K^ebu- 
chadnezzar  in  haste  to  Babylon.  His  triumphant  return  was 
followed  more  slowly  by  hosts  of  captives,  who  were,  as  usual, 
settled  throughout  Babylonia. 

With  his  "  unbounded  command  of  naked  human  strength,""^ 
Nebuchadnezzar  f  (b.c.  604)  applied  himself  to  those  works  which 
afterwards  called  forth  his  celebrated  boast : — "  Is  not  this  Great 
Babylon,  that  I  have  built,  for  the  house  of  the  kingdom,  by  the 
might  of  my  power,  and  for  the  honour  of  my  majesty  ? " :}:  The 
ancient  Greek  writers,  who  have  handed  down  to  us  a  description 
of  the  city,  tells  us  indeed  that  Nineveh  was  still  vaster.  But  the 
splendour  of  Nineveh  was  to  them  a  mere  tradition ;  Babylon 
itself  was  seen,  before  it  had  lost  nearly  all  its  greatness,  by 
Herodotus  and  Ctesias,  from  whom  the  later  writers  borrow  their 
descriptions. 

Tlie  city  of  Babel,  which  the  Greeks  called  Babylon,  was  built 
in  the  great  alluvial  plain  of  Shinar,  on  the  lower  Euphrates,  in 
about  32f  degrees  of  north  latitude.     It  formed  a  regular  square, 

*  Grote,  Hhtory  of  Greece^  vol.  iii.  p.  401. 

f  The  prophets  Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel  use  the  form  Nebuchadrezzar,  which  is  nearer 
to  the  original  Nahu-Kuduri-utzur,  that  is,  we  are  told,  Nebo  is  the  protector  against 
misfortune. 

X  Daniel,  iv.  30. 


DESCRIPTION   OF  BABYLON.  231 

facing  nearly,  but  not  exactly,  the  four  cardinal  points,*  tlie  river 
flowing  through  it  diagonally  from  ISr.W.  to  S.E.,  and  so  dividing 
it  into  two  nearly  equal  parts.  Herodotus  assigns  to  the  circuit 
of  the  outer  wall  a  length  of  480  stadia,  or  48  geographical  miles, 
while  Ctesias  gives  only  360  stadia,  or  36  geographical  miles. 
The  former  estimate  would  make  the  area  of  the  city  about  200 
square  miles  ;  the  latter  about  130  ;  the  smaller  number  amount- 
ing to  about  five  times  the  area  of  London.  All  the  other  esti- 
mates come  so  near  the  one  or  other  of  these  two,  as  to  show  that 
each  M'as  supported  by  high  authority,  and  almost  to  exclude  the 
suspicion  of  mere  guess-work.  It  has  been  suggested,  tliat  the 
statement  of  Herodotus  refers  to  the  outer  wall,  which  may  have 
still  existed  w^hen  he  saw  the  city,  but  have  disappeared  by  the 
time  of  Ctesias,  whose  dimensions  w^ould  thus  relate  to  the  inner 
of  the  two  walls  mentioned  by  Herodotus.  The  existing  ruins, 
near  the  Arab  village  of  Ilillah,  furnish  no  sufiicient  means 
of  testing  the  truth  of  this  opinion.  They  consist  of  a  number  of 
mounds,  some  of  enormous  size,  scattered  over  a  vast  surface  on 
both  sides  of  the  river.  The  most  remarkable  of  these,  with  one 
exception,  lie  w^ithin  a  comparatively  small  compass,  on  the  left 
bank  of  the  river,  about  five  miles  above  Hillah.f  Here,  within 
a  clearly  marked  enclosure,  forming  two  sides  of  a  square,  with  the 
river  (roughly  speaking)  for  a  diagonal,  are  three  great  mounds, 
the  Babil^  the  Kasr  (or  Castle),  and  that  marked  by  the  tomb  of 
Amram-ibn-  Alb,  which  Oppert  attempts  to  identify  respectively 
with  the  great  temple  of  Bel,  the  palace  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  and 
his  famous  Hanging  Gardens.X  On  the  opposite  side  of  the  river, 
the  striking  conical  mound  of  the  Birs-Nimrud  has  been  held 
traditionally  to  mark  the  Tower  of  Babel.  Inscriptions  found 
there  are  now  supposed  to  identify  it  with  the  Temple  of  Belus, 
built  or  rebuilt  by  Nebuchadnezzar  at  Borsippa ;  but  without 
necessarily  contradicting  the  old  tradition.  One  important  differ- 
ence between  Nineveh  and  Babylon  is,  that  while  the  former  was 
built  almost  entirely  of  crude  brick,  the  latter  exhibits  vast  masses 
of  burnt  brick,  cemented  by  mineral  bitumen.    The  most  astound- 


*  The  northern  face  inclined  a  little  to  the  east. 

f  Hillah  itself  is  on  the  right  bank. 

X  The  last  is  not  at  all  probable.  For  the  full  description  of  the  ruins,  and  the 
whole  discussion  of  the  topography  of  Babylon,  the  reader  is  referred  to  Layard's 
Nineveh  and  Babylon  ;  Loftus's  Chaldcea ;  Oppert's  Maps  and  Plans  ;  Rawlinson's 
Herodotus,  vol.  ii.,  Essay  iv.  ;  ajid  the  article  Babel  in  Smith's  Dictionary  of  the 
Bible. 


233  THE   LATER  BABYLONIAN  EMPIRE.  [Chap.  IX. 

ing  part  of  the  ancient  descriptions  is  the  magnitude  assigned  to 
tlie  outer  walls,  which  Herodotus  nialces  200  royal  cuhits  (ahout 
338  feet)  high  and  Hfty  royal  cubits  (about  85  feet)  tliick.  The 
accounts  of  later  writers  are  evidently  designed  extenuations  of 
these  numbers,  which  are  not  altogether  incredible  from  what  we 
know  of  the  Oriental  system  of  fortification,  and  the  rude  vast- 
ness  aimed  at  by  the  early  despotic  kings.*  These  walls  are  de- 
scribed as  strengthened  by  250  towers,  and  pierced  with  100  gates 
of  brass,  with  brass  posts  and  lintels.  The  main  streets  passed 
between  the  opposite  gates,  crossing  one  another  at  right  angles. 
The  river  was  lined  by  quays,  and  the  streets  which  abutted 
upon  them  were  closed  with  brazen  gates,  which  were  shut  at 
night.  They  played  an  important  part  in  the  ca]>ture  of  the  city 
by  Cyrns.  Among  the  prophetic  allusions  to  these  fortifications, 
the  most  striking  is  that  of  Jeremiah  : — "  The  broad  walls  of 
Babylon  shall  be  utterly  broken,  and  her  higli  gates  shall  be  burnt 
with  fire."  f  The  two  parts  of  the  city  were  connected  by  a 
stone  bridge,  1000  yards  long  and  30  feet  wide,  at  each  end  of 
which  was  a  fortified  royal  palace. 

Most  of  these  great  works  were  ascribed  by  tradition  to  Belus 
and  Semiramis,  to  whom  Herodotus  adds  a  queen  Nitocris,  appar- 
ently about  the  time  of  Nebuchadnezzar ;  but  the  authority  of 
Berosus  and  the  chroniclers,  with  newly  discovered  inscriptions, 
prove  them  to  have  been  for  the  most  part  executed  or  renewed 
by  I^ebuchadnezzar.  Tlie  outer  wall  of  the  city  was  of  unknown 
antiquity  ;  l)ut  he  repaired  it,  with  most  of  the  ancient  monu- 
ments ;  and  he  added  the  interior  line  of  defence.  Of  liis  rebuild- 
ing of  the  Temple  of  Belus  we  have  the  extremely  interesting  me- 
morial in  the  inscription  quoted  in  a  former  chapter.  The  most 
important  of  his  new  buildings  at  Babylon  were  the  great  palace, 
the  ruins  of  which  form  the  mound  of  the  Kasr,  and  the  Hanging 
Gardens,  which  seem  to  have  been  formed  by  terraces  rising  one 
above  another,  with  the  surface  broken  into  the  likeness  of  nat- 
ural hills.  They  are  said  to  have  been  raised  to  gratify  his  Median 
queen  with  an  imitation  of  the  scenery  of  her  native  mountains  ! 
His  almost  complete  rebuilding  of  the  city  itself  is  proved  by  the 
constant  occurrence  of  his  name,  and  of  none  other,  on  its  bricks  ; 
and  the  same  is  true  of  most  of  the  cities  of  Upper  Babylonia. 

*  Taking  the  dimensions  of  Herodotus,  tlie  outer  wall  would  contain  nearly 
300,000,000  cubic  yards  of  brickwork,  or  nearly  double  the  solid  content  of  the 
great  wall  of  China ! 

f  Jerem.  li.  58. 


B.C.  585.]  CAPTURE   OF   TYRE.  233 

He  constructed  hydraulic  works  of  the  greatest  magnificence  and 
utility  ;  but  some  of  these  were  doubtless  restorations  of  the  works 
of  the  old  Chaldsean  kings.  Such  were  the  great  canal  from  Hit 
to  the  sea,  the  reserv^oir  for  irrigation  near  Sippara,  and  the  em- 
bankments and  breakwaters  along  both  the  great  rivers  and  the 
shores  of  the  Persian  Gulf.  Whatever  there  was,  in  these  great 
works,  of  mere  vastness  and  barbaric  pomp,  must  not  make  us 
insensible  to  their  real  grandeur  and  utility. 

"  These  are  imperial  works,  and  worthy  kings." 

And  the  pride  of  their  author  in  reviewing  them,  as  he  walked 
in  his  palace,  was  not  chastised  because  they  were  a  waste  of  re- 
sources, but  that  he  might  learn  to  give  the  glory  to  the  Most 
High,  from  whom  came  the  power  to  create  them. 

It  was  not  amidst  the  peace  assured  by  wide-spread  conquests 
that  Nebuchadnezzar  accomplished  these  magnificent  undertak- 
ings. We  have  seen  indeed  that  he  began  his  reign  by  inflicting 
such  a  repulse  upon  his  chief  rival,  that  "  the  king  of  Egypt  came 
no  more  out  of  his  own  land  ; "  *  but  the  Jews  were  slow  to  re- 
nounce the  hope  of  fresh  aid  from  Egypt ;  and  about  the  same 
time  that  Jehoiakim  again  rebelled,  the  Phoenicians  renounced  the 
allegiance  which  they  had  doubtfully  yielded  to  Assyria  (b.c.  598 
— 7).  Aided  by  his  old  ally,  Cyaxares,  Nebuchadnezzar  marched 
first  against  Tyre,  and  formed  the  siege  which  lasted  thirteen 
years,  and  which  gave  occasion  to  one  of  the  most  striking  prophe- 
cies of  Ezekiel.f  Meanwhile,  the  siege  of  Jerusalem  by  another 
Chaldsean  army  was  attended  by  the  death  of  Jehoiakim  and  the 
elevation  of  his  son  Jehoiachin  to  the  throne.  But  he  had  only 
reigned  three  months,  Avhen  Nebuchadnezzar,  leaving  Tyre  in- 
vested, appeared  in  person  before  Jerusalem,  carried  off  the  king 
and  10,000  captives  to  Babylon,  and  placed  Zedekiah  on  the  throne 
(b.c.  597).  We  have  already  related  the  revolt  of  this  king  and 
the  final  destruction  of  Jerusalem  (b.c.  586),:}:  a  victory  soon  fol- 
lowed by  the  capitulation  of  Tyre  (b.c.  585). 

We  read  of  no  new  wars  for  a  period  of  five  years.  This  inter- 
val may  well  have  been  employed  by  Nebuchadnezzar  in  organ- 
izing his  new  conquests,  disposing  of  his  immense  hosts  of  captives, 
and  carrying  on  his  great  works  at  home.     But  about  b.c,  581  he 

*  2  Kings  xxvi.  7. 

f  Ezek.  xxiv. — xxviii.  The  date  of  the  prophecy  itself  (xxvi.  1)  must  not  be  eon- 
founded  with  that  of  the  beginning  of  the  siege,  which  was  in  the  seventh  year  of 
Nebuchadnezzar.     Joseph,  c,  Apion.  i.  21. 

X  Chap.  viii.  p.  185. 


234  THE   LATER  BABYLONIAN  EMPIRE.  [Cii.vr.  IX. 

ai^ain  took  the  lield  uo-aiiist  Eirypt.  A])iios,  tlio  riiaraoh-lIoi)lii'a 
of  Scripture,  had  already  given  him  provocation  by  attacks  on  the 
PhaMiieian  cities  and  by  the  j^roniise  of  aid  to  Zedekiah,  though 
he  had  retreated  when  iS'ebuehadnezzar  turned  agaiust  liim  from 
besieging  Jerusalem.*  The  reception  of  the  Jewisli  fugitives  into 
Egypt  after  the  murder  of  (Tcdaliah  may  have  been  the  crowning 
oti'ence  ;  but,  be  this  as  it  may,  Egypt  api)ears  to  have  been 
invaded  and  overrun  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  Amasis  to  have 
been  set  upon  the  thnme  as  the  vassal  of  Babylon.f 

This  career  of  uninterrupted  prosperity,  supported  by  magua- 
uimity  and  clemency,  combines  with  the  peculiar  relation  oi'  Xebu- 
chadnezzar  to  God's  chosen  people,  to  invest  him  with  an  historic 
interest  surpassed  by  none  of  his  i)redecessors,  and  by  few  of  his 
followers,  who  have  wielded  despotic  power.  The  personal  ele- 
ment, which  gives  so  much  of  its  life  to  history,  iirst  comes  out 
distinctly  in  him  among  all  the  rulers  of  the  world.  Nor  need 
the  historian  hesitate  how  to  read  such  characters  ;  for  the  secret 
of  their  strength  and  weakness,  and  the  place  they  were  designed 
to  lill  in  the  world's  history,  have  been  recorded  in  the  case  of 
Nebuchadnezzar  by  the  same  hand  that  raised  him  up.  The  vic- 
tory which  placed  Judah  at  his  feet,  at  the  beginning  of  his  reign, 
involved  his  subjection  to  that  divine  discipline  of  which  he  is  one 
of  the  most  conspicuous  examples.  Among  the  captives  carried 
to  Babylon,  atlter  his  first  invasion  of  Judah  (b.c.  OOS),  were 
Daniel  and  his  three  companions,  whose  selection  to  be  trained 
among  the  Chalda?ans,  their  fidelity  to  the  sacred  law,  and  their 
advancement  to  the  royal  favour,  we  need  not  stay  to  relate  in 
detail.:}:  It  was  as  early  as  the  second  year  of  Nebuchadnezzar 
(b.c.  C03\  that  his  dream  of  the  colossal  image,  engendered  pro- 
bably by  the  schemes  of  conquest  he  was  revolving,  gave  Daniel 
the  opportunity  to  teach  him  the  supremacy  of  God,  while  ]iro- 
phesying,  for  all  future  ages,  the  establishment  of  His  kiugdom 
on  the  ruins  of  the  successive  empires  of  the  world.§  But  the 
lesson  might  easily  be  forgotten  in  the  full  tide  of  conquest, 
though  Me  are  disposed  to  trace  something  of  its  eftect  in  the 
king's  forbearance  and  moderation  towards  the  rebellious  Jews. 
Upon  the  full  establishment  of  his  empire  and  the  completion  of 


*  Cbap.  viii.  p.  ISO, 

f  Chap.  vii.  p.  125;  comp.  Jor.  xliv.  SO;  Ezok.  x\x.  21 — 24,  xxxii.  31 — 32. 

i  Piiuiol  i. 

^  Paniel  ii. 


B.C.  561.]  DEATH   OF   NEBUCHADNEZZAR.  235 

his  conquests,*  it  scem.s  iiaturul  to  supi)Osc  that  he  set  up  on  tlic 
plaui  of  Dura  that  golden  image,  probably  Bel  or  Nebo,  to  which 
lie  required  the  reprcscmtatives  of  all  the  nations  he  carried  cap- 
tive to  Babylon  to  ofl'er  public  adoration.  The  despot's  rage  at 
the  recusancy  of  his  Jewish  officers  was  turned  into  awed  sub- 
mission at  their  safety  in  the  fiery  furnace,  and  the  still  more 
wondrous  vision  of  Ilim  who  walked  with  them  there  ;  and  the 
royal  servant  of  Nebo  proclaimed  the  supreme  power  of  Jehovah 
to  all  his  subjects.  It  is  an  incidental  testimony  to  the  book  of 
Daniel,  that  the  story  does  not  end  here,  with  the  establishment 
of  the  true  religion  throughout  the  empire.  A  despot's  nature  is 
not  so  quickly  changed,  and  it  needed  a  severer  lesson  to  extort 
his  final  homage  to  the  "  King  of  Heaven."  f 

We  need  not  repeat  the  story  of  the  sudden  stroke  which,  in 
the  very  hour  when  he  was  exulting  over  his  own  s])lendi(l  works 
and  the  majesty  of  his  kingdom,  levelled  the  king  with  the  beasts 
of  the  field,  by  the  form  of  madness  which  is  known  by  the  name 
of  Lycanthrojyy.X  The  malady  seems  to  have  lasted  for  seven 
years  ;  and  some  allusions  in  the  "  Standard  Inscription  "  of  Nebu- 
chadnezzar to  the  suspension  of  his  great  works  are  supposed  to 
refer  to  it ;  but  this  is  very  doubtful.  The  period  of  his  reign 
when  it  occurred  cannot  have  been  earlier  than  b.c.  5S0,  and  it 
may  have  been  considerably  later;  but,  at  all  events,  we  learn 
from  the  book  of  Daniel  that  Kebuchadnezzar  enjoyed  a  season 
of  restored  prosperity  and  power.  He  died,  after  a  reign  of  forty- 
three  years,  leaving  the  kingdom  to  his  son,  Evil-Merodach,  the 
Illoarudamus  of  the  Greek  writers,  n.c.  561. 

The  history  of  Babylon  now  falls  into  an  obscurity  which  of 
itself  testifies  to  the  insignificance  of  the  successors  of  Nebuchad- 
nezzar. Two  years  are  assigned  by  the  chroniclers  to  Evil- 
Merodach,  who  was  then  put  to  death  for  his  lawlessness  and 
intemperance.  The  only  fact  recorded  of  him  in  Scripture  is  his 
restoration  of  the  captive  Jewish  King  Jehoiachin  to  an  honour- 
able place  at  his  court.§  His  murderer  and  successor  was  his 
brother-in-law,  XEiiioLissAii  (b.c.  559),  who  is  called  in  his  inscrip- 


*  On  this  ground  the  date  of  B.C.  680,  which  TJssher  assigns  to  the  third  chapter 
of  Daniel,  seems  very  near  the  truth. 

t  Daniel  iv.  36. 

X  That  is,  when  a  man  fancies  himself  a  wolf  or  some  other  beast.  Professor 
Welcker,  of  Bonn,  has  collected  all  that  is  known  of  this  affection  in  a  paper  printed  in 
his  Kleine  Schriften,  vol.  iii.  p.  157. 

§  2  Kings  XXV.  27;  chap.  viii.  p.  186. 


236  THE   LATER  BABYLONIAN  EMPIRE.  [Chap.  IX. 

tioris  "  Eab-Mag,"  probably  a  Chaldaean  title,  signifying  Chief 
Priest.  The  remains  of  a  palace  built  by  him  still  exist  at  Baby- 
lon. Ilis  youthful  son,  Laborosoarcliod  (b.c.  556),  "vvas  cut  off  by 
a  conspiracy,  after  a  reign  of  only  nine  months,  and  the  throne 
was  seized  by  one  of  the  conspirators,  Nabonidus  or  Nabonadius 
(l^abunahit  *),  the  Labynetus  II.  of  Herodotus,  and  the  last  king 
of  Babylon  (b.c.  555). 

Meanwhile  the  growth  of  the  new  Persian  power,  in  whi(!li 
Cyrus  had  just  absorbed  the  empire  of  the  Medes,  threatened  to 
cover  the  whole  of  Western  Asia.  Cyrus  was  now  advancing 
against  Croesus ;  and,  whether  through  fear,  or  because  the  old 
Median  alliance  seemed  less  binding  with  the  new  dynasty,  Xabo- 
nadius  listened  in  an  evil  hour  to  the  proposals  of  the  Lydian 
king  for  an  alliance  of  Lydia,  Babylon,  and  Egypt,  against  Persia. 
The  plan  was  disconcerted  by  the  rash  advance  of  Croesus  across 
the  Halys,  and  the  energy  of  Cyrus.  Croesus  was  defeated  and 
shut  up  in  Sardis,  the  city  was  taken,  and  the  whole  Lydian  em- 
pire, as  far  as  the  shores  of  the  ^gean  Sea,  added  to  the  dominions 
of  the  Persian  (b.c.  554 — 3).  Cyrus  suffered  fifteen  years  to  elapse 
before  attacking  Babylon  ;  and  the  interval  was  spent  by  jS'abo- 
nadius  in  strengthening  his  defences.f  These  defences  seem  to 
have  been  confined  to  the  capital  itself,  the  open  country  being 
abandoned  to  the  invaders.  One  battle  only  was  risked  under 
the  walls  of  Babylon  ;  and  the  defeated  Chald[eans  retii'ed  within 
their  enormous  walls,  the  strength  of  wliich  bade  defiance  to  the 
enemy,  while  the  ample  spaces  within  sufiiced  for  abundant  sup- 
plies. In  the  language  of  Jeremiah,  whose  prophecy  of  the 
taking  of  Babylon  has  all  the  vivid  picturesqueness  of  contem- 
porary history, — "  The  mighty  men  of  Babylon  forbore  to 
fight :  they  remained  in  their  holds." :{:  We  are  quite  without 
details  of  the  duration  and  the  incidents  of  the  siege,  until  its  very 
end. 

Whoever  wishes  to  appreciate  the  vast  difference  between  the 
briefest  narrative  of  a  great  event  by  an  eye-witness,  and  the 
meagre  annals  of  later  chroniclers,  has  only  to  compare  the  won- 
derful picture  of  Belshazzar's  Feast,  in  the  Book  of  Daniel,§  with 
the  confused  statements  of  the  Greek  writers.     At  first  sight,  in- 

*  According  to  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson,  this  is  the  Semitic  form,  the  Chaldaean  being 
Nahu-induk,  and  both  meaning  "Nebo  blesses"  or  "makes  prosperous." 

f  The  river  walls  are  ascribed  by  Berosus  to  this  king,  and  their  bricks  bear  his 
name.  The  "Median  Wall"  of  Xenophon  seems  to  be  incorrectly  referred  to  this 
period.  \  Jer.  li.  §  Daniel  v. 


B.C.  538.]  TAKING   OF   BABYLON  BY   CYRUS.  237 

deed,  these  "vrriters  seem  to  leave  no  place  for  Belsliazzar.  Thej 
tell  us  that  Xabonadius,  when  defeated  in  the  one  battle  that  he 
risked,  fled  to  Borsippa,  where  he  was  still  shut  up  when  Babylon 
was  taken  ;  after  which  he  submitted  to  Cyrus,  and  was  treated 
with  the  honour  whicli  the  Persians  used  to  pay  to  conquered 
kings.  All  this  is  quite  consistent  witli  the  narrative  in  the  Book 
of  Daniel.  For  we  now  learn  from  an  inscription  of  Xabonadius 
deciphered  by  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson,  that  that  king  associated 
with  himself  his  son  Bil-shar-utzue,  who  is  evidently  the  Bel- 
shazzar  of  Daniel,  and  whose  first  and  third  years  are  mentioned 
by  the  prophet.^  It  would  seem  then  that  Belsliazzar  took  the 
command  of  the  Chaldaeans,  who  were  beleaguered  in  Babylon, 
while  his  father  was  shut  up  in  Borsippa.  There  he  behaved 
with  the  arrogance  of  a  youth  inexperienced  in  government, 
revelling  with  his  courtiers  in  fancied  security,  and  insulting 
the  God  of  Heaven.  The  fearful  handwriting  on  the  palace 
wall,  and  the  terrible  denunciation  of  the  prophet,  form  a  scene 
too  deeply  impressed  on  our  earliest  recollections  to  need  repe- 
tition. The  leading  incident  is  confirmed  by  Herodotus  in  two 
words,  when  he  tells  us  that  Babylon  was  taken  "  amidst 
revelries." 

All  the  historians  are  agreed  as  to  the  manner  in  which  the 
city  was  entered.  By  diverting  the  course  of  the  Euphrates,  Cyras 
laid  open  a  way  for  his  army  tlirongh  the  bed  of  the  river  into  the 
very  heart  of  Babylon.  His  stratagem  was  aided  by  the  careless 
security  of  the  Chaldteans  themselves,  who  had  left  the  gates  open- 
ing on  to  the  river  unclosed.  Yast  as  was  the  space  within  the 
walls,  large  portions  of  the  city  might  be  in  the  possession  of  the 
enemy,  before  its  capture  was  known  at  the  palace  ;  and  the 
entrance  of  the  Persians  may  already  have  been  effected  when 
Belshazzar's  revelry  was  at  its  height.  Xo  words  could  more 
vividly  describe  the  scene  that  followed,  than  those  in  which  the 
prophet  Jeremiah  had  foretold  it  in  a  distant  land  : — "  One  post 
shall  run  to  meet  another,  and  one  messenger  to  meet  another,  to 
shew  the  King  of  Babylon  that  his  city  is  taken  at  one  end,  and 
that  the  passages  are  stopped,  and  the  reeds  they  have  burned 
with  fire,  and  the  men  of  war  are  aftnghted."  f  Belsliazzzar  was 
killed  in  the  confusion  of  the  sack,  the  only  record  of  his  fate 

*  Daniel  vii.  1,  viii.  1.  Respecting  the  probable  relationship  of  Belshazzar  to  the 
f\\mily  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  the  place  to  be  assigned  to  the  queen  Nitocris  of  Herodo- 
tus, see  Rawlinson's  Herodotus^  App.  to  Book  i.  Essay  riii. 

f  Jerem.  li.  31,  32. 


238  THE  LATER  BABYLONIAN  EMPIRE.  [Chap.  IX, 

being  in  the  brief  words  of  Daniel : — "  In  that  niglit  was  Bel- 
shazzar,  the  King  of  the  Chahlceans,  slain."  *  His  fatlier,  as  we. 
have  said,  submitted  to  Cj^riis,  who  gave  him  a  sort  of  princi- 
pality in  Carmania,  where  he  seems  to  have  ended  his  days  in 
peace.     Thus  fell  the  empire  of  Babylon  in  b.c.  538. 

Having  adliered  to  the  Book  of  Daniel  as  the  highest  author- 
ity for  these  events,  we  may  at  this  point  meet  the  difficulty 
which  has  arisen  respecting  liis  "  Darius  the  Median,  the  son  of 
Ahasuerus,"  who  "  took  the  kingdom,"  at  the  age  of  seventy-two, 
immediately  on  the  death  of  Belshazzar,f  and  who  is  seen  exer- 
cising the  royal  authority,  not  only  at  Babylon,  but  thence  over 
the  120  provinces  of  the  Medo-Persian  Empire ; :}:  while,  in 
another  passage,  he  is  said  to  have  been  "  made  king  over  the 
realm  of  the  Chaldceans,''^  a  phrase  which  might  be  taken  to  im- 
ply a  more  limited  authority.§  All  scholars  are  now  agreed  in 
rejecting  the  attempt  to  identify  Darius  with  a  supposed  Cyaxares 
II.,  who  appears  in  the  Ci/ropcedia  of  Xenophon  as  the  son  of 
Astyages, — Astyages  himself  being,  by  all  trustworthy  accounts, 
tlie  last  king  of  Media,  by  whose  dethronement  the  empire  passed 
to  Cyrus  and  the  Persians.  The  Cyaxares  of  Xenophon  is  not  an 
historical  personage  at  all,  but  a  character  introduced  into  the  ro- 
mance— for  such  the  Cyropsedia  really  is — as  a  foil  to  the  virtues 
attributed  to  Cyrus.  All  our  knowledge  of  the  revolution  effected 
in  the  Medo-Persian  empire  concurs  to  make  it  a  violent  transfer 
of  the  supremacy  from  the  Medes  under  Astyages  to  the  Persians 
under  Cyrus.  Cyrus  alone  effects  the  capture  of  Babylon,  at  the 
head  of  the  Medo-Persian  forces  ;  and  no  place  is  left  for  the  im- 
mediate rule  of  Cyaxares,  as  a  king  of  the  Medes.  But  for 
"  Darius,  the  son  of  Ahasuerus,"  a  royal  prince  "  of  the  seed  of 
the  Medes,"  an  appropriate  place  may  be  found,  as  a  viceroy,  who 
"  was  made  king  over  the  realm  of  the  Chaldseans  "  by  Cyrus 
after  the  capture  of  Babylon.  How  far  he  may  have  exercised  a 
viceregal  authority  over  the  whole  empire,  while  Cyrus  was  en- 
gaged in  distant  wars,  is  perhaps  hardly  worth  discussing  on  the 
scanty  information  we  possess.  Nothing  could  be  more  natural 
than  for  the  'Jewish  captives  at  Babylon  to  regard  such  a  viceroy 
as  a  king  ;  and  hence  they  date  the  years  of  Cyrus  from  the  time 

*  Daniel  v.  30. 
f  Daniel  v.  31. 

X  Daniel  vi.     It  scarcely  follows,  however,  as  a  matter  of  absolute  certainty,  that 
the  120  princes  imply  120  provinces  ;  but  such  is  the  most  natural  sense. 
S  Daniel  ix.  1. 


B.C.  538.]  DAKIUS  THE   MEDIAN.  239 

when  this  state  of  the  government  appears  to  have  come  to  an 
end  by  the  death  of  Darius,  in  b.c.  536.* 

The  further  question,  whether  any  light  can  be  thrown  on  the 
identity  of  Darius,  though  not  essential  for  the  solution  of  the  difB- 
culty,  is  one  of  no  small  interest.  He  is  in  fact  identified,  by  the 
chronographer  Syncellus,  and  in  the  apocryphal  supplement  to 
the  Book  of  Daniel,t  with  the  dethroned  king  Astyages  himself. 
The  Darius  of  Daniel  is  evidently  a  Median  of  the  highest  rank, 
and  probably  of  royal  birth.:}:  The  name  of  his  father,  Ahasue- 
rus  (Achashverosh)  is  certainly  identical  with  tlie  Median  name 
Cyaxares,  which  was  borne  by  the  father  of  Astyages.  The 
position  to  which  Cyrus  raised  him  at  Babylon  accords  with  the 
respect  which  Herodotus  tells  us  that  Cyrus  paid  to  Astyages,  and 
with  the  customs  of  the  Persians.  But  more  than  this  :  we  can 
easily  understand,  that  Herodotus  was  not  sufficiently  acquainted 
with  Oriental  usage  to  perceive,  that  Cyrus,  as  the  grandson  of 
Astyages,  and  imbued  by  the  Persian  discipline  with  reverence 
for  all  forms  of  duty  and  authority,  may  have  professed,  during 
the  life  of  Astyages,  to  yield  the  royal  state  to  him,  though  him- 
self really  governing.  If  so,  the  j^osition  of  Darius  w^as  above 
that  of  a  mere  viceroy  ;  and  no  occasion  is  left  for  wonder  that 
the  Jews  viewed  him  as  the  king,  and  Cyrus  as  his  successor. 
The  ChaldoBans,  perhaps  understanding  better  the  real  relation 
of  Darius  to  Cyrus,  omit  him  from  their  list  of  kings.  The  iden- 
tification is  not  free  from  further  difficulties,  too  minute  to  be 
discussed  here  ;  but  it  is  now  very  generally  accepted.§ 

After  the  Persian  conquest.  Babylonia  became  a  province  of 
the  empire,  and  the  city  was  one  of  the  royal  residences,  ranking 
as  the  second  in  the  kingdom.  It  was  from  Babylon  that  Cyrus 
issued  his  decree  for  the  return  of  the  captive  Jews  ;  and  his  suc- 
cessors resided  there  for  a  great  portion  of  the  year.  It  was  long, 
however,  before  the  Chaldaeans  submitted  finally  to  the  new 
dynasty.  Darius  Hystaspis  had  twice  to  suppress  a  revolt  of 
Babylon,  under  a  leader  who  claimed  to  be  a  son  of  Is  abonadius. 

*  This  13  reckoned  as  the  first  year  of  Cyrus,  in  which  he  issued  his  edich  for  the 
return  of  the  Jews.     2  Chron.  xxxvi.  22;  Ezra  i.  1 ;  comp.  Daniel  i.  21. 
f  In  the  part  entitled  "  Bel  and  the  Dragon," 
:j:  This  seems  implied  in  the  phrase  "  of  the  seed  of  the  Medes." 
§  This  view  was  put  forth  by  the  present  writer  in  the  Biblical  Review,  for  1845, 
No.  1.     It  is  maintained  by  Profes.sor  Rawlinson  and  other  recent  historians.     Marcus 
Niebuhr,  in  his  Gcschichte  Assurs  und  Babels,  while  identifying  Astyages  with  Darius, 
makes  two  conquests  of  Babylon — a  Median  and  a  Persian ;    the  former  by  Astyages, 
and  the  latter  by  Cyrus ;  but  this  is  altogether  improbable. 


240  THE  LATER  BABYLONIAN  EMPIRE.  [Chap.  IX. 

On  the  first  of  these  occasions,  two  great  battles  were  fouglit ; 
and  on  both  the  city  was  besieged  and  taken.*  Another  revolt, 
under  Xerxes,  involved  another  siege  and  capture. 

The  whole  interest  of  Persian  history,  from  Darius  to  Alexan- 
der, being  centred  in  its  external  relations  to  the  West,  we  hear 
nothing  more  of  Babylon  till  it  fell,  as  Daniel  had  predicted,  under 
the  power  of  the  Macedonian.  It  was  at  Babylon  that  Alexander 
held  his  court  after  his  return  from  India  (b.c.  324)  ;  and  tlie  im- 
portance still  maintained  there  by  the  priestly  caste  of  the  Chal- 
doeans  is  indicated  by  those  unheeded  warnings  which  his  own 
imprudence  so  soon  verified.  His  death  was  hastened  by  his 
schemes  for  making  Babylon  the  capital  of  his  empire,  and  restor- 
ing to  the  country  its  natural  advantages.  Intending  to  repair 
the  system  of  canals,  he  visited  i^e  lower  course  of  the  Eujihrates, 
and  in  its  marshes  he  caught  the  fever  which  his  excess  rendered 
fatal  (b.c.  323).  His  plans  perished  with  him.  The  Seleucidge, 
who  succeeded  to  the  eastern  part  of  his  empire,  fixed  their  capi- 
tal at  Antioch  in  Syria ;  while  the  population  of  Babylon  re- 
moved, in  great  part,  to  the  new  city  of  Seleucia  on  the  Tigris. 
The  great  river,  once  the  pride  and  ornament  of  the  city,  no  longer 
restrained  and  regulated  by  embankments  and  canals,  wandered 
over  the  plain,  from  which  the  houses  fast  disappeared,  and  created 
pestiferous  marshes.  The  brick  palaces  and  temples,  crumbling 
into  decay,  literally  "  became  heaps,  a  dwelling-place  for  drag- 
ons," t  and  the  haunt  of  wild  beasts.  The  desolation  has  been 
ever  increasing  down  to  our  own  age,  under  the  conjoint  influence 
of  misgovernment  and  neglect.  By  a  strange  recurrence  in  the 
cycle  of  history,  the  land  in  which  the  Chaldseans  first  planted 
civilization  amidst  rude  Turanian  races,  and  defended  it  against 
the  Arabs  of  the  desert,  has  long  since  fallen  under  the  nominal 
government  of  the  Turanian  Turks,  and  become  the  real  posses- 
sion of  the  wandering  Arabs.  All  the  primeval  cities,  of  which 
we  have  spoken,  shared  the  fate  of  Babylon  ;  but  her  site  is 
marked  by  a  pre-eminence  of  desolation.  When  the  traveller  has 
exhausted  his  powers  of  language  in  expressing  the  sadness  of 
gloom  inspired  by  the  scene,  he  has  but  re-echoed  the  exact  de- 
scriptions of  the  Hebrew  prophets.  Let  but  the  following  exam- 
ples be  placed  side  by  side : — "  And  Babylon,  the  glory  of  king- 
doms, the  beauty  of  the  Chaldee's  excellency,  shall  be  as  when  God 
overthrew  Sodom  and  Gomorrah.     It  shall  never  be  inhabited, 

*  "We  learn  this  from  the  statement  of  Darius  himself,  in  the  inscription  of  Behistun. 
\  Jer.  li.  37. 


THE   DESOLATION   OP  BABYLON.  341 

neitlier  sliall  it  be  dwelt  in  from  generation  to  generation  ;  neither 
shall  the  Arabian  pitch  tent  there ;  neither  shall  the  shepherds 
make  their  fold  there.  But  wild  beasts  of  the  desert  shall  lie  there ; 
and  their  houses  shall  be  full  of  doleful  creatures  ;  and  owls  shall 
dwell  there,  and  satyrs  shall  dance  there.  And  the  wild  beasts  of 
the  islands  shall  cry  in  their  desolate  houses,  and  dragons  in  their 
pleasant  palaces  :  and  her  time  is  near  to  come,  and  her  days  shall 
not  be  prolonged."  *  Thus  far  the  Hebrew  prophet ;  now  let  us 
hear  the  modern  traveller :  "  Besides  the  great  mound,  other  shape- 
less heaps  of  rubbish  cover  for  many  an  acre  the  face  of  the  land. 
The  lofty  banks  of  ancient  canals  fret  the  country  like  natural  ridges 
of  hills.  Some  have  been  long  choked  with  sand  ;  others  still  carry 
the  waters  of  the  river  to  distant  villages  and  palm-groves.  On 
all  sides  fragments  of  glass,  marble,  pottery,  and  inscribed  brick, 
are  mingled  with  that  peculiar  nitrous  and  blanched  soil,  which, 
bred  from  the  remains  of  ancient  habitations,  checks  or  destroys 
vegetation,  and  renders  the  site  of  Babylon  a  naked  and  hideous 
waste.  Owls  start  from  the  scanty  thickets,  and  the  foul  jackal 
skulks  through  the  furrows."  f  "  Various  ranges  of  smaller  mounds 
fill  up  the  intervening  space  to  the  eastern  angle  of  the  walls.  The 
pyramidal  mass  of  El-Heimar,  far  distant  in  the  same  direction, 
and  the  still  more  extraordinary  pile  of  the  Birs-Nimrud  in  the 
south-west,  across  the  Euphrates,  rise  from  the  surrounding  plain 
like  two  mighty  tumuli,  designed  to  mark  the  end  of  departed 
greatness.  Midway  between  them  the  river  Euphrates,  wending 
her  silent  course  towards  the  sea,  is  lost  amid  the  extensive  date- 
groves  which  conceal  from  sight  the  little  Arab  town  of  Hillah.  All 
else  around  is  a  blank  waste,  recalling  the  words  of  Jeremiah :  '  Her 
cities  are  a  desolation,  a  dry  land  and  a  wilderness,  a  land  wherein 
no  man  dwelleth,  neither  doth  any  son  of  man  pass  thereby.' "  :|: 

To  these  descriptions  we  may  well  add  the  poetic  view  of  the 
same  scene,  not  merely  for  its  vivid  beauty,  but  for  its  insight  into 
one  of  the  most  striking  lessons  of  Divine  Providence : — 

*'  Slumber  is  there,  but  not  of  rest ; 
There  her  forlorn  and  weary  nest 

The  famish'd  hawk  has  found ; 
The  wild  dog  howls  at  fall  of  night, 
The  serpent's  rustling  coils  affright 

The  traveller  on  his  round. 


*  Isaiah  xiii.  19 — 22 :  comp.  Jer.  1.  and  li. 
f  Layard,  Nineveh  and  Babylon,  p.  484. 
X  Loftus,  Chaldoea  and  Susiana,  p.  20. 
VOL.  I. — 16 


243  THE   LATER  B^\:BYL0NIAN  EMPIRE.  [Chap.  IX. 

"  What  shapeless  form,  half  lost  on  high,* 
Half  seen  against  the  evening  sky. 

Seems  like  a  ghost  to  glide, 
And  watch,  from  Babel's  crumbling  heap 
Where  in  her  shadow,  fast  asleep, 

Lies  fall'n  imperial  Pride  ? 

"  With  half-closed  eye  a  lion  there 

Is  basking  in  his  noontide  lair, 

Or  prowls  in  twilight  gloom. 

The  golden  city's  king  he  seems. 

Such  as  in  old  prophetic  dreams 

Sprang  from  rough  ocean's  womb.f 

"But  where  are  now  hisieagle  wings, 
That  shelter'd  erst  a  thousand  kings, 

Hiding  the  glorious  sky 
From  half  the  nations,  till  they  own  * 

•       No  holier  name,  no  mightier  throne?— 
That  vision  is  gone  by. 

"  Quench'd  is  the  golden  statue's  ray ;  X 
The  breath  of  heaven  has  blown  away 

What  toiling  earth  had  piled. 
Scattering  wise  heart  and  crafty  hand, 
As  breezes  strew  on  ocean's  strand 

The  fabrics  of  a  child. 

"Divided  thence,  through  every  age. 
Thy  rebels.  Lord,  their  warfare  wage, 

And  hoarse  and  jarring  all 
Mount  up  their  heaven-assailing  cries 
To  Thy  bright  watchmen  in  the  skies 
From  Babel's  shatter'd  wall."  § 

In  the  frustration  of  tlie  plans  of  the  Babel  builders,  in  tbe  fall 
of  Nineveh,  in  the  desolation  of  Babylon,  we  may  see  more  even 
than  the  fulfilment  of  prophecy.  Tliey  are  lasting  witnesses  to 
the  great  plans  of  Divine  Providence  in  reference  to  the  empires 
of  the  world.  Raised  up  by  the  desires  of  men  who  aimed  at  god- 
like power  upon  earth,  and  permitted  to  tyrannize  over  the  nations 
which  had  forsaken  the  King  of  Heaven, — chastizing  by  self-will 
and  brute  force  the  self-willed  weakness  of  a  race  that  had  forgot- 
ten God, — they  fell  successively  under  the  sentence,  which  the 
handwriting  on  the  wall  passed  upon  Belshazzar,  and  which  his- 
tory repeats  against  every  despotism  to  the  end  of  time :  "  Thou 
art  weighed  in  the  balances  and  found  wanting  :  " — wanting  in 

*  The  allusion  is  to  a  group  of  lions  seen  by  Sir  R.  K.  Porter  on  the  summit  of  the 
Birs-Nimrud. 

f  Daniel  vii.  4.  X  Da^el  ii.,  iii.  §  Keble,  Christian  Year. 


THE   TRUE   UNIVERSAL  EMPIRE.  243 

fulfilling  the  true  ends  of  states  and  governments,  tlie  welfare  of 
mankind,  and  their  union  in  the  bonds  of  social  life.  And  this  is 
the  key  to  the  symbolic  use  of  the  name  of  Babylon,  revived  in 
the  last  ages  of  the  world's  history  to  designate  that  "  mystery  of 
iniquity,"  in  which  spiritual  is  superadded  to  worldly  despotism, 
till  both  shall  share  the  fate  of  Babylon  of  old.*  Nor  does  the 
prophecy  which  sets  past  and  future  history  in  this  light  close  till 
it  has  unfolded  the  bright  vision  of  the  only  true  universal  em- 
pire, when  "  the  God  of  heaven  shall  set  up  a  kingdom  which 
shall  never  be  destroyed,  but  shall  break  in  pieces  and  consume 
all  these  kingdoms,  and  stand  for  ever  and  ever."  f 

*  Revelation  xvii,,  xviii,  I  Daniel  ii.  44. 


244  THE  MEDO-PERSIAN  EMPIRE. 


CHAPTER  X, 


THE    MEDO-PERSIAN    EMPIRE,    FROM    ITS    ORIGIN    TO  ITS 

SETTLEMENT   UNDER  DARIUS   HYSTASPIS. 

B.C.    633?   TO   B.C.    531. 


"  Then  I  lifted  up  mine  eyes,  and  saw,  and  behold  there  stood  before  the  river  a  ram 
which  had  two  horns  ;  and  the  two  horns  were  high ;  but  one  was  higher  than  the  other, 
and  the  higher  came  up  last.  I  saw  the  ram  pushing  westward  and  northward  and  south- 
ward ;  so  that  no  beasts  might  stand  before  him,  neither  was  there  any  that  could  deliver 
out  of  his  hand  ;  but  he  did  according  to  his  will,  and  became  great." — Daniel  riii.  3,  4. 


DESCRIPTION  OP  MEDIA — ITS  EARLIEST  INHABITANTS — THE  MEDES  AN  ARYAN  RACE  AND  KINDRED 
TO  THE  PERSIANS — THEIR  RELATIONS  TO  ASSYRIA — RISE  OF  THE  MEDIAN  KINGDOM — DOUBT- 
FUL LEGENDS — DEIOCES  AND  PHRAORTES — CYAXARES  THE  TRUE  FOUNDER— HIS  CONT£ST 
WITH  THE  SCYTHIANS — MILITARY  ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  MEDES— CONQUESTS  OF  CYAXARES 
— DESTRUCTION  OF  NINEVEH — RISE  OF  THE  LYDIAN  EMPIRE — THE  NATIONS  OF  ASIA  MINOR — • 
THE  HALYS  AN  ETHNIC  BOUNDARY — AFFINITIES  OF  THE  WESTERN  NATIONS — EARLY  KING- 
DOMS IN  ASIA  MINOR — GORDIUS — MIDAS — TROY — LYDIA — NATURAL  RESOURCES  OP  THE  COUN- 
TRY— MYTHICAL  PERIOD  OF  LYDIAN  STORY — DYNASTY  OP  THE  HERACLIDS — CANDAULES  AND 
GYGES — DYNASTY  OF  THE  MERMNADS — CONQUESTS  IN  ASIA  MINOR — ATTACKS  ON  THE  GREEK 
COLONIES — INVASION  OF  THE  CIMMERIANS  UNDER  ARDYS — ALYATTES — THEIR  EXPULSION  BY 
ALYATTES — WAR  BETWEEN  LYDIA  AND  MEDIA — THE  "ECLIPSE  OF  THALES  "^DEATHS  OF 
CYAXARES  AND  ALYATTES — THE  TOMB  OP  ALYATTES — CROESUS  AS  VIEWED  BY  HERODOTUS — 
HIS  REAL  HISTORY — ASTYAGES  THE  LAST  KING  OF  MEDIA — REIGN  OF  ASTYAGES — PEACEFUL 
STATE  OF  WESTERN  ASIA — ORIGIN  OF  THE  PERSIAN  RACE — DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  COUNTRY — 
THE  PERSIAN  LANGUAGE — RELIGION  OF  THE  MEDES  AND  PERSIANS— MAGIAN  ELEMENTAL 
WORSHIP,     ORIGINALLY   TURANIAN — DUALISM    THE    OLD    PERSIAN    FAITH — AURAMAZDA   AND 

AHRIMAN — MIXTURE   AND    CONFLICT  OP  THE  TWO  SYSTEMS ZOROASTER — HIS   DOCTRINES  AND 

LEGENDARY  HISTORY — THE  TEN  TRIBES  OF  THE  PERSIANS — THEIR  MILITARY  ORGANIZATION 
AND  GENERAL  DISCIPLINE — DYNASTY  OF  THE  ACH.i:MENID,E — THEIR  RELATION  TO  MEDIA — 
LEGENDARY  STORY  OF  CYRUS — TRANSFER  OF  THE  MEDIAN  EMPIRE  TO  PERSIA — CYRUS  IN 
THE  CTROP^DIA  AND  IN  SCRIPTURE— THE  CONQUEST  OP  LYDIA,  THE  GREEK  COLONIES,  AND 
BABYLON — RESTORATION  OF  THE  JEWS— DESIGNS  ON  EGYPT — WARS  IN  CENTRAL  ASIA — 
DEATH  OF  CYRUS — CAMBYSES— CONQUEST  OP  EGYPT— HIS  MADNESS  AND  DEATH— THE  MAGIAN 
PSEUDO-SMERDIS — ACCESSION  OF  DARIUS  THE  SON  OF  HYSTASPIS — SURVEY  OF  THE  PERSIAN 
EMPIRE. 

The  nations  that  have  thus  far  occupied  our  attention  -were  of 
the  Hamitic  and  Semitic  races.  We  have  seen  them  founding 
kingdoms  on  a  vast  scale  of  despotic  power  and  rude  magnifi- 
cence, and  cultivating  those  arts  and  sciences  which  minister  to 
the  material  wants  of  man.  We  have  seen  one  family  called  out 
from  the  rest,  to  preserve  the  knowledge  of  the  true  God,  amidst 
the  idolatry  which  had  become  universal  at  a  very  early  age,  and 
to  exhibit,  in  contrast  to  those  despotisms,  the  pattern  of  a  free 
religious  commonwealth,  governed  by  a  present  God.  We  have 
seen  how,  through  their  own  moral  weakness,  the  race  of  Israel 
lost  this  great  distinction,  and  became  captives  to  Assyria  and 


RISE   OF  THE  [MEDIAN   POWER.  245 

Babylon,  till  the  time  came  to  avenge  lliem  in  the  overthrow 
of  their  tyrants.  We  have  now  to  trace  the  history  of  the  power 
by  which  that  revolution  was  effected  ;  a  power  sprung  from  the 
race  of  Japheth,  to  which  the  prophetic  blessing  of  Noah  had 
promised  the  most  enduring  possession  of  empire. 

We  have  had  frequent  occasion  to  allude  to  that  marked  division 
which  is  foraied  by  the  chain  of  Zagros  (the  mountains  of  Kurdis- 
tan and  Luristan)  between  the  great  valley  of  the  Euphrates  and 
the  Tigris,  and  the  table-land  of  Iran  to  the  east.  While  the 
former  region  was  the  seat  of  that  power  and  civilization  which, 
at  least  in  the  earliest  ages,  require  the  nurture  of  a  fertile  soil 
and  favourable  climate,  the  latter  was  the  cradle  of  those  hardier 
races  whose  destiny  it  is  to  found  a  more  lasting  power. 

The  greater  part  of  this  table-land  was  known  in  the  earliest 
ages  by  the  name  of  Media,  a  country  which  may  be  described 
generally  as  extending  from  the  Caspian  Sea  on  the  north  to  the 
mountains  of  Persia  Proper  on  the  south,  and  from  the  highlands 
of  Armenia  and  the  chain  of  Zagros  on  the  west  to  the  great  rain- 
less desert  of  Iran  on  the  east.  It  corresponds  to  the  modern 
provinces  of  Irak-Ajemi,  parts  of  Kurdistan  and  Luristan,  Azer- 
bijan,  and  perhaps  Talish  and  Ghilan.  Between  these  limits  it 
comprises  a  grest  variety  of  country  and  climate,  being  inter- 
sected tliroughout  by  mountain  ranges,  which  enclose  valleys  rich 
in  corn  and  summer  fruits.  The  finest  part  of  the  country  is  the 
modern  province  of  Azerbijan,  an  elevated  region  enclosed  by  the 
offshoots  of  the  Armenian  mountains,  and  surrounding  the  basin 
of  the  great  Lake  LTrumiyeh  (4200  feet  above  the  sea),  and  the 
valleys  of  the  Sefid  Rud  (the  ancient  Mardus)  and  the  Aras 
(Araxes),  the  northern  boundary  of  the  whole  land.  In  this 
mountain  region  stands  Tabriz,  the  delightful  summer  retreat  of 
the  modern  Persian  Shahs.  The  mountains  which  extend  to  the 
south,  forming  the  western  part  of  Media,  partake  generally  of 
the  like  character.  The  slopes  of  Zagros  afforded  excellent  pas- 
ture ;  and  here  were  reared  that  valuable  breed  of  horses,  which 
the  ancients  called  the  Nisaean.  The  eastern  districts  are  less 
favoured  by  nature,  being  flat  and  pestilential  where  they  sink 
down  to  the  shores  of  the  Caspian  ;  rugged  and  sterile  where  they 
adjoin  the  desert  of  Iran.  An  ofishoot  of  this  desert,  to  the 
south-west,  formed  a  natural  division  between  Media  and  Persia 
Proper,  a  region  of  which  we  have  presently  to  speak. 

Even  when  the  ancient  writers  refer  back  to  a  period  at  which 
this  country  was  probably  occupied,  like  Western  Asia  in  general, 


246  THE   MEDO-PERSIAN  EMPIRE.  [Chap.  X. 

by  a  primitive  Turanian  race,  they  know  its  inhabitants  by  the 
name  of  Medes.*  But  the  race  to  whom  the  name  properly  be- 
longed (the  Mada,  Madai,  or  Ifedi)  were  undoubtedly  Japhetic, 
or,  as  we  now  say,  borrowing  the  designation  from  themselves, 
Aryan.  In  the  great  ethnic  table  in  the  Book  of  Genesis,  Madai 
is  the  third  son  of  Japheth,  standing  next  after  Gomer  and  Magog, 
the  races  who  occupied  Central  Asia  north  of  Media.  •  Herodotus 
expressly  informs  us  that  the  Medes  were  universally  called 
Aryans  ;  f  the  Armenian  writers  invariably  apply  to  them  this 
appellation ;  and,  in  common  with  the  kindred  Persians,  they 
always  claim  it  for  themselves.  They  aj^pear  to  have  had  essen- 
tially the  same  language  %  and  religion,  dress  and  customs,  as  the 
Persians,  who  were  the  very  cream  of  the  Aryan  race.  The  close 
connexion  between  the  races,  constantly  implied  in  the  language 
of  the  ancient  writers,  who  use  the  words  Median  and  Persian 
almost  indifferently,  is  especially  remarkable  in  the  formula  used 
by  themselves,  as  if  to  imply  the  identity  of  their  most  ancient 
institutions — "  the  law  of  the  Medes  and  Persians,  which  alteretli 
not,"  § 

Indications  are  not  wanting  that  the  Median  race  was  very 
widely  spread  over  the  highland  regions  of  Western  Asia,  in  the 
primeval  ages  of  the  world  ;  but  this  is  a  discussion  into  which 
we  cannot  stay  to  enter.  The  tribes  which  occupied  the  country 
in  the  earliest  historic  times  are  traced  back,  both  by  Indian  and 
Persian  traditions,  to  the  country  beyond  the  Indus  ;  and  the  in- 
scription on  the  celebrated  black  obelisk  of  Nimrud  ||  is  thought 
by  some  to  refer  to  the  migration  as  still  in  progress  (about  B.C. 
880).  "We  have  seen  that  the  Greek  traditions  of  the  Assyrian 
Empire  make  Ninus  the  conqueror  of  Media.  The  records  of 
the  Assyrian  kings  make  frequent  mention  of  Median  wars  and 
conquests,  beginning  from  the  ninth  century  ;  but  these  conquests 

*  We  have  seen  that  this  may  explain  the  statement  of  Berosus  respecting  a  primi- 
tive Median  dynasty  in  Chaldcea;  chap.  viii.  p.  195. 

f  Herod,  vii.  62.  We  adhere,  with  Max  Miiller,  to  the  native  orthography,  as  more 
distinctive  than  Arian. 

X  The  so-called  Median  inscriptions  of  the  Persian  kings,  in  the  cuneiform  character, 
are  held  by  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson  to  be  Scythic  {Commentary  on  the  Inscriptions  of 
Assyria  and  Babylonia^  p.  75). 

§  Daniel  vi.  8,  12,  15.  The  usage  of  such  writers  as  Herodotus,  who  no  doubt 
learned  the  common  use  of  the  names  from  the  people  themselves,  is  perfectly  distinct 
from  the  confusion  by  which  the  writers  of  the  Augustan  age  applied  the  terms  Median 
and  Persian  indifferently  to  the  Parthians  and  even  to  northern  India,  as  in  the  "  Medu3 
Hydaspes"  of  Virgil. 

II  See  chap.  ix.  p.  218. 


RELATION  OF   THE  MEDES  TO   ASSYRIA.  247 

were  usually  only  of  that  intermittent  kind  whicli  we  have 
ah-eady  described.*  The  most  successful  of  the  invaders  was 
Sargon,  who  twice  overran  some  part  of  the  country,  and  founded 
in  it  cities,  which  he  peopled  with  the  Israelitisli  captives  from 
Samaria  (e.g.  710).  An  inscription  in  his  great  palace  at  Ivhorsa- 
bad  claims  Media  as  the  easternmost  province  of  his  empire.  But 
how  far  the  conquest  was  from  being  permanent  is  proved  by  tlie 
distinct  mention  of  Media,  both  by  Sennacherib  and  Esar-haddon, 
as  "  a  country  which  had  never  been  brought  into  subjection  by 
the  kings  their  fathers."  f  The  tribes  of  Media,  united  by  no 
common  government,  were  defeated  or  victorious,  paid  tribute 
or  withheld  it,  according  to  the  varying  strength  and  energy  of 
their  powerful  neighbour. 

This  state  of  things  was  ended  by  the  consolidation  of  Media 
into  a  powerful  kingdom  under  a  dynasty  of  native  princes.  For 
the  history  and  date  of  this  great  change  we  obtain  no  information 
from  the  Assyrian  records,  and  we  are  dependent  upon  the  doubt- 
ful and  inconsistent  statements  of  the  Greek  writers,  and  espe- 
cially of  Herodotus  and  Ctesias.  The  account  of  the  latter  author 
is  now  generally  rejected  as  a  mere  fabrication.  That  of  Herod- 
otus is  on  many  grounds  suspicious  ;  and  he  is  supposed  to  have 
been  misled  by  the  wilful  misstatements  of  his  Median  authorities. 
He  places  the  revolt  of  Media  from  Assyria  a  little  higher  tlian 
179  years  before  the  death  of  Cyrus  (e.g.  708),  at  the  very  time 
when  the  Assyrian  monuments  begin  to  claim  the  subjugation  of 
Media  !  Having  recovered  their  independence  after  a  tierce  strug- 
gle, they  chose  a  native  king  named  Deioces,  who  reigned  tifty-three 
years,  and  whose  three  successors,  Phraortes  (twenty-two  years), 
Cyaxares  (forty  years),  and  Astyages  (thirty-five  years),  continued 
the  Median  dynasty  down  to  its  overthrow  by  Cyrus,  whose 
twenty-nine  years  (ending  in  e.g.  529)  make  up  the  above  sum  of 
179  years.  The  story  of  Deioces  bears  a  marked  impress  of  Gre- 
cian rather  tlian  Oriental  ideas.  The  seven  tribes  of  the  Medes, 
scattered  over  separate  villages,  suffered  from  all  the  ills  of  an- 
archy, till  the  reputation  for  justice  whicli  Deioces  had  acquired 
in  his  own  village  induced  them  to  make  him  the  arbiter  of  their 
disputes.  Having  restored  order,  Deioces  withdrew  into  private 
life,  knowing  that  he  should  soon  be  missed.  Anarchy  revived  ;  a 
king  was  called  for  as  the  only  remedy,  and  Deioces  was  elected. 
He  at  once  began  to  organize  a  despotic  power,  which  he  admin- 

*  See  chap.  ix.  pp.  223 — i.  f  Rawlinson's  Herodotus,  Essay  iii.  on  Book  i. 


248  TETE  MEDO-PERSIAN  EMPIRE.  [Chap.  X. 

istered  from  his  new  capital  of  Ecbatana,  whither  he  compelled 
the  Medians  to  remove  their  habitations.  The  city  was  built  upon 
a  hill,  enclosed  by  seven  concentric  walls,  the  central  summit 
being  occupied  by  the  palace,  within  which  Deioces  lived  in  se- 
clusion, transacting  all  public  business  through  spies,  informers, 
petitions,  and  written  decrees.  In  this  picture,  as  in  the  Cyrus 
of  Xenophon,  criticism  has  detected  one  of  those  ideal  embodi- 
ments of  forms  of  government  by  which  the  Greeks  were  wont 
to  illustrate  their  political  discussions.*  Phraortes,  the  reputed 
conqueror  of  Persia,  is  almost  equally  suspicious.  Tlie  name 
{Frawartish),  though  genuine,  may  not  improbably  have  been 
transferred  back  from  its  historical  owner,  a  Mede  who  rebelled 
against  Darius  Hystaspis,  and  set  up  for  a  time  an  independent 
throne  in  Media.  While  tradition  represents  Phraortes  as  making 
extensive  conquests,  and  at  last  falling  in  battle  against  the  As- 
syrianSjt  the  contemporary  monuments  of  Assyria  show  us  the 
king  Asshur-bani-pal  as  chiefly  engaged  in  hunting  in  Susiana. 

Cyaxaees  appears  to  have  been  the  true  founder  of  the  Median 
kingdom,  about  e.g.  633.  As  such  he  was  regarded  by  an  earlier 
Greek  tradition  than  that  followed  by  Herodotus  ;  X  ^^^  the  great 
inscription  of  Darius  alludes  more  than  once  to  rebels  who  traced 
their  lineage  from  Cyaxares.  "  The  conclusion  thus  established," 
says  Professor  Rawlinson,  "  brings  the  Median  kingdom  into 
much  closer  analogy  with  other  oriental  empires  than  is  presented 
by  the  ordinary  story.  Instead  of  the  gradual  growth  and  in- 
crease, which  Herodotus  describes,  the  Median  power  springs 
forth  suddenly  in  its  full  strength,  and  the  empire  speedily  attains 
its  culminating  point,  from  which  it  almost  as  speedily  declines. 
Cyaxares,  like  Cyrus,  Attila,  Genghis  Khan,  Timour  and  other 
eastern  conquerors,  emerges  from  obscurity  at  the  head  of  his  ir- 
resistible hordes,  and  sweeping  all  before  him,  rapidly  builds  up 
an  enormous  power,  which,  resting  on  no  stable  foundation,  im- 
mediately falls  away."  §     The  origin  and  growth  of  this  power 

*  Grote,  History  of  Greece,  vol.  iii.  pp.  307 — 309.  Sir  Henry  Eawlinson  sees  in 
the  name  of  Deioces  (i.  e.,  Dahak,  the  biting)  a  mere  equivalent  of  Astyages  (i.  e.,  Aj- 
dahak,  the  biting  snake).  He  regards  both  names  as  Scythian  titles,  borrowed  by  the 
Medes  from  their  enemies. 

\  The  real  Frawartish  fell  in  battle  against  the  Persians. 

:|:  In  a  celebrated  passage  of  the  Persce  of  JEschylus  (vv.  I&l — 764),  a  3Iede  is 
named  as  the  first  leader  of  the  Medo-Persian  host,  his  son  as  the  completer  of  his 
work,  and  Cyrus  as  the  third  from  him;  that  is,  clearly,  from  the_^rs<.  The  three  are, 
therefore,  Cyaxares,  Astyages,  and  Cyrus. 

§  Rawlinson's  Herodotus,  App.  to  Book  i.  Essay  iii. 


B.C.  633.]  INVASION  OF   THE   SCYTHIANS.  249 

can  only  be  conjectured  from  the  scanty  materials  we  possess.  It 
is  even  doubtful  whether  it  first  arose  in  Media  itself,  or  whether 
Cyaxares  was  not  rather  the  leader  of  an  Aryan  host  from  some 
region  furtlier  to  the  East,"^  who  for  the  first  time  established  an 
Aryan  nation  in  the  country  of  Media,  which  had  hitherto  been 
chiefly  occupied  by  scattered  Turanian  tribes. 

It  is  certain  that  the  time  of  Cyaxares  was  distinguished  by 
a  great  movement  among  the  Turanian  races  which  on  the  north 
overhung  the  more  civilized  countries,  both  in  Europe  and  in 
Asia.  According  to  Herodotus,  the  Cimmerians,  who  lived  to  the 
north  of  the  Ister  and  the  Euxine,f  pressed  upon  by  the  Scythians 
from  Central  Asia,  made  a  great  irruption  into  Asia  Minor,  where 
some  of  their  tribes  efi'ected  permanent  settlements ;  while  the 
Scythians,  entering  Upper  Asia  by  way  of  Media,  overran  that 
country,  crossed  the  range  of  Zagros  into  Mesopotamia,  passed 
through  Syria  to  the  frontier  of  Egypt,  which  Psammetichus  only 
redeemed  from  invasion  by  costly  presents,  and  held  the  dominion 
of  Western  Asia  for  twenty-eight  years,  till  they  were  expelled  by 
Cyaxares.  It  is  needless  to  enter  into  the  elaborate  discussion  by 
which  these  statements  have  been  shown  to  be  greatly  exagge- 
rated as  a  whole,  and  very  doubtful  in  their  leading  details.  For 
our  present  purpose,  the  chief  point  remains  pretty  certain  that 
Cyaxares  only  established  his  new  kingdom  in  Media  after  a  severe 
conflict  between  the  Scythian  and  Aryan  races.  We  have  abun- 
dant evidence  that  these  races  had  hitherto  shared  the  possession 
of  the  tableland  of  Media.  While  the  former  still  preponderated, 
the  latter  seem  to  have  been  steadily  growing  in  numbers  and  in 
power,  reinforced  by  fresh  migrations  from  the  East.  At  length, 
we  may  suppose,  there  occurred  one  of  those  great  movements  in 
Central  Asia  by  which,  from  age  to  age,  the  wave  of  Turanian 
invasion  has  been  driven  forward  to  break  upon  the  south  ;  and 
in  a  fresh  eff'ort  to  repel  this  fresh  invasion,  the  Aryan  race  ob- 
tained the  mastery  and  founded  the  kingdom  of  Media.  One 
consequence  of  their  victory  may  have  been  to  drive  a  body  of 
the  expelled  Scythians  across  Mount  Zagros,  whose  irruption  gave 
a  nejv  blow  to  the  already  declining  power  of  Assyria,  Wliat 
truth  there  may  be  in  the  account  of  their  further  progress  west- 
ward, we  have  no  sufficient  means  to  decide. 

"  Little  as  we  know,"  says  Mr.  Grote,  "  about  the  particulars 
of  these  Cimmerian  and  Scythian  inroads,  they  deserve  notice  as 

*  Professor  Rawlinson,  in  advancing  this  theory,  suggests  Khorassan. 
■j-  The  Danube  and  Black  Sea ;  see  further,  p.  255. 


350  THE   MEDO-PERSIAN  EMPIRE.  [Chap.  X. 

the  first  (at  least  the  first  historically  known)  among  the  numer- 
ous invasions  of  cultivated  Asia  and  Europe  by  the  Noraades  of 
Tartary.  Huns,  Avars,  Bulgarians,  Magyars,  Turks,  Mongols, 
Tartars,  &c.,  are  found  in  subsequent  centuries  repeating  the  same 
infliction,  and  establishing  a  dominion  both  more  durable,  and 
not  less  destructive,  than  the  transient  scourge  of  the  Scythians 
during  the  reign  of  Cyaxares."  * 

Dividing  with  these  Scythian  tribes  the  possession  of  the 
regions  beyond  the  Tigris,  and  long  engaged  in  war  against  them, 
it  is  not  surprising  to  find  the  Aryan  Medes  resembling  them  in 
military  organization.  Strong  in  cavalry  and  archery,  the  hardy 
followers  of  Cyaxares  were  well  prepared  to  play  the  part  of  con- 
querors. Cyaxares  is  said  to  have  divided  their  undisciplined 
forces  into  the  several  arms  of  cavalry,  archers,  and  spearmen. 
The  two  great  achievements  of  his  reign  were  the  extension  of  his 
empire  to  the  west,  over  the  highlands  of  southern  Armenia  and 
of  Asia  Minor,  as  far  as  the  river  Halys,  and  the  destruction  of 
Nineveh  and  the  Assyrian  empire. 

The  order  of  these  events  is  left  doubtful  by  Herodotus,  nor 
can  we  determine  it  certainly  by  other  evidence.  It  seems  more 
probable  that  Cyaxares  would  first  avenge  on  the  weakened  king- 
dom of  Assyria  her  many  attacks  on  Media,  and  make  good  the 
claim  of  the  latter  to  independence  by  a  decisive  victory.  The 
most  recent  researches  appear  to  have  succeeded  in  fixing  the  cap- 
ture of  Nineveh  to  the  year  b.c.  625.  Of  the  manner  in  which  it 
was  efl'ected  by  Cyaxares  in  alliance  with  the  Babylonians,  enough 
■  has  been  already  said.f  The  result  was  to  re-erect  Babylonia  into 
an  independent  kingdom  under  the  dynasty  of  Nabopolassar,  with 
free  scope  for  extending  their  conquests  to  the  west,  while  the 
whole  of  Upper  Mesopotamia  was  added  to  the  Median  kingdom. 
Two  new  empires  were  thus  founded  in  Western  Asia,  of  which 
the  Median  was  the  more  powerful,  the  Babylonian  more  civilized 
and  splendid.  Each  had  scope  enough  for  its  own  ambition  to 
X30Stpone  the  final  contest  for  supremacy  to  a  much  later  period. 

Meanwhile  a  third  empire  had  arisen  far  to  the  west,  in  Asia 
Minor,  which  was  approaching  the  height  of  its  power  at  the 
epoch  of  the  fall  of  Nineveh.  This  was  the  great  kingdom  of 
Lydia,  with  which  Cyaxares  was  brought  into  conflict  by  the  west- 
v/ard  progress  of  his  conquests.     A  review  of  the  previous  history 

*  Grote,  History  of  Greece,  vol.  iii.  p.  339. 
f  See  chap.  ix.  p.  225. 


THE  NATIONS   OF  ASIA  MINOR.  251 

of  this  kingdom  carries  us  to  the  shores  of  the  .^gean  Sea,  and 
brings  the  famous  nations  of  Europe  within  our  view. 

The  peninsula  of  Asia  Minor  is  equally  remarkable  in  a  phys- 
ical and  ethnic  point  of  view.  Like  Asia  it  is  formed  by  a  great 
central  table-land,  supported  by  two  chief  mountain-ranges,  which 
extend  from  east  to  west,  and  form,  in  fact,  the  prolongations  of 
the  central  and  southern  chains  of  the  whole  continent.  Like 
Europe,  it  is  surrounded  by  the  sea  on  every  side  except  the  east, 
and  its  deeply  indented  shores,  especially  on  the  west,  are  marked 
out  by  nature  for  maritime  and  commercial  enterprise.  Placed 
between  these  two  continents,  and  divided  from  Africa  only  by 
the  Mediterranean,  with  Cyprus  as  a  stepping-stone  between, 
while  it  adjoins  on  the  land-side  the  primeval  seat  of  the  human 
family,  it  lies,  so  to  speak,  in  the  very  focus  of  the  chief  races 
that  have  overspread  the  earth.  The  result  of  this  position  is  a 
mixture  of  populations,  more  intricate  and  more  difficult  to  dis- 
tinguish, than^in  any  other  region  of  the  ancient  world.  The  very 
enumeration  by  Herodotus  of  the  nations  west  of  the  river  Halys 
is  enough  to  alarm  the  student  of  ethnology,  nor  can  we  obtain 
much  light  from  the  great  divisions  into  which  the  peninsula  was 
afterwards  mapped  out.  There  is,  however,  one  broad  general 
distinction  of  the  highest  value.  The  river  Halys,  which  divides 
the  whole  country  irregularly  into  an  eastern  and  western  half, 
was  also  a  line  of  demarcation  between  the  Semitic  and  Japhetic 
races  ;  the  former  embracing  the  Cappadocians  or  Syrians,  and  the 
latter  a  vast  number  of  difl'erent  tribes ;  while  on  the  southern 
coast,  the  Pamphylians  and  Cilicians,  cut  off  from  the  rest  by  the 
chain  of  Taurus,  seem  to  have  been  Semitic  races  not  unmixed 
with  Hamite  blood.  We  cannot  pursue  in  detail  the  traditions, 
languages,  common  rites,  and  other  marks  of  affinity,  which  con- 
nected the  tribes  west  of  the  Halys  with  each  other  and  with 
those  of  Europe.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  the  nations  along  the 
north  coast,  and  in  the  north-west  as  far  south  as  the  river  Hermus, 
the  Paphlagonians,  Bithynians,  Mysians,  Teucrians,  Phrygians,  and 
other  lesser  tribes,  were  near  akin  to  the  Thracians  of  Europe,  the 
connexion  having  been  made  more  intimate  by  migrations  in  both 
directions.  The  south-west  corner,  south  of  the  Mseander,  was 
the  seat  of  the  Carians  and  Leleges,  who  were  spread  also  over 
the  islands  of  the  ^gean.  Between  the  Hermus  and  the  Mseander 
dwelt  the  Lydians,  apparently  one  of  the  most  ancient  nations  of 
the  peninsula,  closely  connected  with  the  Pelasgians,  who  formed 
the  oldest  population  both  of  Greece  and  Italy.     Traditions  of 


252  THE  MEDO-PERSIAN  EMPIRE.  [Chap.  X. 

very  remote  antiquity  went  so  far  as  to  make  the  Etruscans  (the 
conquering  race  who,  in  Italy,  subdued  the  Pelasgians)  a  colony 
from  Lydia.*  The  Carians,  Lydians,  and  Mysians  preserved  the 
memory  of  their  common  origin  by  common  sacrifices  to  the 
Carian  Jove  at  Mylasa.     Of  the  Lycians  we  shall  speak  later. 

The  earliest  legends  of  these  nations  tell  of  the  existence  of 
local  kingdoms,  such  as  those  in  Phrygia,  of  Gordius,  whose  fated 
knot  involved  the  power  to  bind  and  loose  all  Asia,  and  of  Midas, 
whom  there  is  some  reason  to  believe  an  historical  personage.f 
Amidst  the  halo  of  glory  which  the  poetry  of  Homer  has  shed 
round  the  name  of  Troy,  magnifying  a  local  war  into  the  most 
famous  contest  in  the  annals  of  the  world,  we  discern  traces  of  an 
empire,  limited  indeed  as  compared  with  those  which  have  occu- 
pied our  attention,  but  comprising  most  of  the  Thracian  peoples 
on  both  sides  of  the  Hellespont.  Passing  from  poetry  to  history, 
we  find  the  first  great  kingdom  established  in  Asia  Minor  by  a 
people  whose  historic  name  and  capital  city  are  alike  unknown 
to  Homer.  He  never  mentions  Sardis,  though  he  speaks  of  the 
neighbouring  localities  of  Mount  Tmolus  and  the  Gygaean  lake  ; 
while  he  alludes  to  the  people  of  Lydia  by  the  name  of  Mseonians.ij: 

The  country  of  Lydia  possesses  great  elements  of  wealth  in  the 
fertile  valleys  of  the  Hermus,  the  Cayster,  and  the  Mseander,  and 
the  mineral  treasures  of  its  soil.  Pecent  experience  in  other  parts 
of  the  world  enables  us  to  understand  those  stories  of  the  golden 
sands  of  the  Pactolus,  which  have  sometimes  been  regarded  as 
fables  even  by  those  who  possessed  money  coined  from  them. 
The  Lydians  had  also  mines  near  Pergamus ;  and  the  Greeks 
believed  them  to  be  the  first  people  who  coined  gold  and  silver 
money,  or  carried  on  retail  trade. 

The  origin  of  the  Lydian  kingdom  is  lost  amidst  mythical 
stories,  stamped  with  a  Greek  character,  as  was  natural  from  their 
passing  through  the  mouths  of  the  Greek  colonists,  who  borrowed, 
with  the  Lydian  and  Phrygian  modes  of  music,  the  legends  of 
their  adopted  country.     In  the  first  king,  Manes^  the  son  of  Jove, 

*  Horace  employs  this  tradition  as  a  delicate  flattery  of  his  patron : — 

"  Non  quia,  Mascenas,  Lydorum  quidquid  Etruscos 
Incoluit  fines,  nemo  generosior  est  te, — ." — Sat.  vi.  1,  2. 

This  tradition,  however,  was  not  held  by  the  Lydians  themselves,  and  appears  to  be 
certainly  unfounded.     (See  Niebuhr,  History  of  Rome^  vol.  i.  pp.  38,  foil.) 

\  Herodotus  (i.  14)  makes  him  the  first  who  sent  presents  to  Delphi. 

X  Niebuhr  considers  the  Ma^oniaus  to  have  been  the  original  inhabitants  of  Lydia 
and  a  Pelasgian  people,  and  the  Lydians  a  later  and  conquering  race. 


MYTHICAL  HISTORY  OF  LYDIA.  253 

we  see  the  step  from  the  rule  of  the  gods  to  that  of  a  man,  which 
is  often  met  with  in  mythical  history.  In  his  descendants,  Asies, 
Atys,  Lydus,  and  Tyrseniis,  we  have  simply  the  heroes  eponymi 
of  Asia,*  of  the  royal  race  of  the  Atyadse,  of  Lydia  itself,  and 
of  its  supposed  colony,  Etruria.  In  tlie  name  of  Torrhebus, 
whom  the  native  historian  Xanthus  mentions  as  a  brother  of 
Lydus,  it  is  supposed  that  we  may  trace  that  remnant  of  the  old 
Pelasgian  inhabitants,  who  occupied  the  separate  district  of  Lydia 
Torrhebia — including  the  valley  of  the  Cayster,  south  of  Tmolus 
— and  who  spoke  a  distinct  dialect. 

Xext  comes  the  dynasty  of  the  Heraclids,  whose  twenty-two 
kings  till  up  a  period  of  505  years.  The  names  of  the  first  five 
kings — Agron,  Hercules,  Alcaeus,  Belus,  and  Ninus — suffice  to  be- 
tray not  only  a  purely  mythical  character,  but  the  most  hetero- 
geneous mixture  of  Greek  and  Oriental  legends.  This  is  regard- 
ed by  Professor  Rawlinson  as  "  the  clumsy  invention  of  a  Lydian, 
bent  on  glorifying  the  ancient  kings  of  his  country  by  claiming 
for  them  a  connexion  with  the  mightiest  of  the  heroes  both  of 
Asia  and  of  Greece."  f  At  the  end  of  this  dynasty  we  still  find 
ourselves  within  the  sphere  of  poetical  romance,  though  the  per- 
sonages are  possibly  historical.  Most  readers  know  the  story, 
told  by  Herodotus  with  his  admirable  simplicity,  of  the  fate  of 
Candaules,  the  last  king.  %  With  the  infatuation  of  a  man 
doomed  to  destruction  by  the  gods,  he  insisted  on  showing  the 
naked  person  of  his  wife  to  his  follower  Gyges.  The  queen  dis- 
covered the  insult,  and  gave  Gyges  the  choice  between  suffering 
death  himself,  or  inflicting  it  on  Candaules,  and  succeeding  to  his 
bed  and  throne.  By  the  choice  of  the  latter  course,  Gyges  put 
an  end  to  the  dynasty  of  the  Heraclids,  and  founded  that  of  the 
Mermnads.§  The  change  was  not  eflected  without  opposition, 
but  actual  war  is  said  to  have  been  averted  by  the  sentence  of 
the  Delphic  oracle,  the  fame  of  which  had  already  been  extended 

*  It  should  be  remembered  that  this  name  belonged  first  to  a  part  of  Asia  Minor, 
about  the  same  region  as  Lydia,  and  was  afterwards  extended  to  the  whole  continent. 

\  Rawlinson's  Herodotus^,  App.  to  Book  i.  Essay  i.  The  extension  of  the  Assyrian 
empire  to  Lydia  is  affirmed  by  Ctesias  and  accepted  by  Niebuhr ;  but  the  story  is  not 
confirmed  by  the  monuments. 

X  Called  also  Myrsilus,  i. ».  the  son  of  Myrsus,  a  form  of  patronymic,  which  is  also 
found  in  Latin. 

§  The  story  is  avowedly  borrowed  by  Herodotus  from  the  poet  Archilochus,  of 
Paros,  who  lived  about  the  time  of  Gyges.  Plato  has  preserved  another  form  of  the 
legend,  in  which  Gyges,  a  herdsman  of  the  King  of  Lydia,  obtains  in  a  marvellous  man- 
ner a  ring  which  makes  its  wearer  invisible  ;  by  this  means  he  obtains  access  to  the 
queen,  conspires  with  her  to  assassinate  the  king,  and  seizes  the  throne. 


254 


THE  MEDO-PERSIAN  EMPIRE. 


[Chap.  X. 


through  the  Greek  colonists  to  the  Asiatics.  The  main  event  is 
probably  historical,  the  revolution  being  one  of  those  which  fe- 
male desire  has  often  brought  about  in  Asiatic  kingdoms. 

The  oracle  was  rewarded,  or  rather,  we  may  safely  say,  its  re- 
sponse was  purchased,  by  the  first  of  those  presents  with  which 
the  Mermnad  kings  continually  enriched  the  shrine  of  the  Pythian 
god.  But  it  was  afterwards  believed  to  have  foretold  the  punish- 
ment of  the  crime  of  Gyges  by  the  extinction  of  his  dynasty  with 
his  fifth  successor.  The  five  kings  thus  indicated  are — Gyges, 
Ardys,  Sadyattes,  Alyattes,  and  Croesus.  Herodotus  assigns  to 
the  whole  dynasty  a  duration  of  lYO  years,  and  (though  there  are 
some  minor  discrepancies  between  him  and  the  chroniclers)  we 
may  divide  this  period  pretty  accurately  among  the  several  kings. 
But  there  is  a  doubt  about  the  epoch  of  the  end  of  the  dynasty, 
on  which  all  the  other  dates  depend.  In  an  elaborate  argument, 
which  we  have  no  space  to  follow,  Professor  Rawlinson  proposes 
to  place  this  epoch  eight  years  higher  than  the  usual  datc^ 

The  new  dj-nasty  pursued,  from  the  first,  an  aggressive  policy 
towards  their  neighbours,  both  on  the  west  and  east,  and  the 
Lydian  kingdom  gradually  became  an  empire,  comprising  nearly 
all  Asia  Minor,  west  of  the  Halys.  Gyges  began  that  series  of 
aggressions  on  the  Greek  colonists,  who  seem  hitherto  to  havo 
dwelt  peacefully  on  the  western  coasts,  which  Croesus  consum- 
mated by  their  complete  reduction  to  a  tributary  state,  thus  pre- 
paring the  way  for  the  extension  of  the  Persian  Empire  to  the 
shores  of  the  ^gean.  Within  the  peninsula,  a  series  of  conquests 
was  also  completed  by  Croesus,  whose  empire  included  all  the 
tribes  west  of  the  Halys,  except  the  Lycians  and  the  Cilicians,  for 
whom  the  Taurus  doubtless  proved  a  barrier  against  invasion. 
But  these  conquests  were  interrupted  by  two  events  of  moment 
in  the  general  history  of  the  world. 

In  the  reign  of  Ardys,  Asia  Minor  was  devastated  by  the  in- 
vasion of  the  Cimmerians,  a  people  who  came  unquestionably  from 
the  region  now  called  the  Ukraine,  north  of  the  Black  Sea,  be- 

*  The  following  are  the  two  schemes : — 


Clinton,  &c. 

EAWLIN80N. 

1. 

2. 
3. 
4. 
5, 

Gyges 

Ardys 

Sadyattes      .... 

Alyattes 

Croesus 

B.C. 

716—678 
678—629 
629—617 
617—560 
560—546 

B.C. 

724—686 
686—637 
637—625 
625—568 
568—554 

B.C.  680  ?]  INVASION   OF  THE   CIM3IERIANS.  255 

tween.  the  Danube  and  the  Sea  of  Azov,  where,  as  Herodotus  re- 
marks, their  traces  were  found  in  Cimmerian  castles  and  a  Cim- 
merian ferry,  in  a  tract  called  Cimmeria,  and  a  Cimmerian  Bos- 
porus ;  *  and  where  their  name  is  still  borne  by  the  ruins  of  Eski- 
Crim  (Old  Krim,  the  ancient  Cimmerium),  and  by  the  peninsula 
of  Crimea,  or  Crim-Tartary.  From  that  region  they  were  prob- 
ably expelled  by  some  great  movement  of  the  Scythians  of  Central 
Asia,  like  that  which  shortly  afterwards  precipitated  hordes  of 
the  latter  people  upon  Media.f  Smaller  bodies  of  the  Cimmerians 
seem  to  have  entered  Asia  Minor  on  former  occasions,  in  conjunc- 
tion with  Thracian  tribes,  by  way  of  the  Hellespont  and  Bosporus ; 
but  now  a  vast  horde  marched  round  the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea 
along  the  foot  of  the  Caucasus,  poured  into  the  country  from  the 
north-east,  and  deluged  its  whole  surface.  They  even  entered  the 
range  of  the  Taurus,  but  were  repelled  with  great  slaughter  by 
the  Cilician  mountaineers.  Their  ravages  were  most  severely  felt 
in  the  rich  valleys  of  Ionia  and  Lydia,  where  they  burnt  the  great 
temple  of  Artemis  at  Ephesus,  and  the  capital  city  of  Sardis,  all 
but  the  citadel.  It  is  the  nature  of  such  barbarian  invasions  to 
exhaust  their  first  force  by  subsequent  inaction  and  excess.  That 
the  power  of  the  Cimmerians  thus  declined  in  the  reign  of  Sady- 
attes,  the  son  of  Ardys,  is  proved  by  his  resuming  the  siege  of 
Miletus,  about  b.c.  631.  They  were  at  length  expelled  by  Aly- 
attes  ;  but  even  then  they  retained  certain  positions  in  the  coun- 
try, the  most  important  of  which  was  Sinope  on  the  Black  Sea. 
The  exact  dates  of  their  entrance  and  expulsion  are  both  uncertain. 
The  one  seems  to  have  been  early  in  the  reign  of  Ardys,  and  the 
other  late  in  that  of  Alyattes. 

The  similar  invasion  of.  Media  by  the  Scythians  is  said  to  have 
occasioned  the  first  collision  between  the  Lydian  and  Median 
empires.  A  horde  of  the  defeated  nomads  fled  from  the  severities 
inflicted  on  them  by  Cyaxares,  and  sought  refuge  with  the  Lydian 
king,  ^  His  refusal  to  give  them  up  was  followed  by  a  war, 
which  lasted  six  years  with  equal  advantages  on  both  sides,  and 

*  Now  the  Straits  of  Kaffa. — Herod,  iv.  12.  The  far  wider  question  of  their  iden- 
tity with  the  Cimbri  and  other  great  Celtic  races  of  Western  Europe,  including  the 
Cymry  of  Wales  and  Cumberland,  and  of  their  movements  westward  under  the  pressure 
of  the  Scythians  of  Asia,  has  long  been  under  discussion.  (See  Kawlinson's  Essay  i.  to 
Herodotus,  Book  iv.) 

f  For  the  traditional  story  of  both  events,  see  Herod,  iv.  11,  12.  But  we  cannot 
accept  his  account  of  their  connexion. 

X  "The  passage  of  such  nomadic  hordes  from  one  government  in  the  East  to 
another,  has  been  always,  and  is  even  down  to  the  present  day,  a  frequent  cause  of 


256  THE  MEDO-PERSIAN  EMPIRE.  [Chap,  X. 

was  only  ended  by  a  celestial  portent.  An  eclipse  of  the  sun, 
which  occuiTed  in  the  midst  of  a  great  battle,  struck  such  terror 
into  both  armies  that  tlie  conflict  was  suspended  ;  and  peace  was 
shortly  afterwards  concluded  by  the  mediation  of  the  Babylonian 
prince,  Labynetus,  who  seems  to  have  been  present  as  an  ally  in 
the  army  of  Cyaxares,*  and- of  the  Cilician  prince,  Syennesis,  the 
ally  of  Alyattes.  The  marriage  of  Aryenis,  the  daughter  of  Aly- 
attes,  to  Astyages,  the  son  of  Cyaxares,  formed  a  tie  between  the 
royal  houses  of  Lydia  and  Media,  which  helped  to  involve  them 
in  a  common  fall.  The  inadequate  cause  assigned  for  the  war 
permits  us  rather  to  regard  it  as  arising  from  a  great  scheme  of 
conquest  on  the  part  of  Cyaxares,  who  had  now  pushed  on  his 
frontier  to  the  Halys ;  and  the  successful  resistance  of  Alyattes 
may  be  explained  by  a  general  league  of  the  nations  within  the 
Halys,  in  which  even  the  Cilicians  took  part. 

The  date  of  the  battle  is  one  of  those  tantalizing  problems  in 
which  a  promise  of  certainty  eludes  our  grasp.  We  might  have 
supposed  that  it  would  be  easily  calculated  from  the  "  Eclipse  of 
Thales " — so  called  because  the  Milesian  philosopher  is  said  to 
have  predicted  its  occurrence.  Whether  the  astronomical  science 
of  the  Greeks  was  then  sufficient  for  such  a  prediction  has  been 
doubted ;  but  our  own  difficulty  arises  from  the  very  opposite 
cause.  Astronomers  have  proposed  dates  varying  between  the 
limits  of  B.C.  625  and  e.g.  583.  As  the  result  of  calculations, 
based  on  the  newest  tables,  Ideler  maintains  that  the  only  eclipse 
answering  all  the  conditions  of  time,  place,  and  total — or  all  but 
total — obscuratioUjf  is  that  which  occurred  on  the  30th  Septem- 
ber, B.C.  610,  of  our  present  calendar.;]: 

This  war  was  succeeded  by  a  long  interval  of  peace,  during 

dispute  between  the  different  governments.  They  are  valuable  both  as  tributaries  and 
as  soldiers." — Grote,  History  of  Greece,  vol.  iii.  p.  310. 

*  Herod,  i.  74.  This  Labynetus  would  naturally  be  the  commander  of  a  con- 
tingent sent  by  Nabopolassar  to  the  aid  of  his  ally.  He  bears  the  same  name  (Laby- 
netus =  Nabu-nit)  as  the  last  king  of  Babylon,  and  may  very  likely  have  been  of  the 
same  family. 

•j-  This  is  manifestly  required,  to  explain  the  awe  inspired  by  the  eclipse ;  and  it 
may  be  added  that  the  striking  accounts  given  by  recent  observers  of  their  own 
emotions  on  viewing  such  a  scene,  with  all  the  calmness  of  science  and  preparation, 
forbid  our  ascribing  the  impression  made  on  contending  armies  as  the  fruit  of  ignorant 
superstition. 

X  See  Ideler,  Handbuch  der  Chronologic,  vol.  i.  p.  209  ; — Grote,  History  of  Greece, 
vol.  iii.  p.  311.  The  balance  of  evidence  seems  in  favour  of  this  date,  though,  still 
more  recently,  such  authorities  as  Airy  and  Hind  lean  to  the  date  of  B.C.  585.^ 
Bosanquet,  Fall  of  Nineveh,  p.  14. 


B.C.  568.]       DEATHS   OF   CYAXARES  AJ^D  ALYATTES.  257 

wliieli  the  conquests  of  Nebucliadnezzar  and  the  fall  of  Judah 
form  the  only  stirring  events  in  Western  Asia.  Of  Cyaxares  we 
hear  nothing  farther,  except  that  he  sent  aid  to  ]S"ebnchadnezzar 
in  the  wars  against  Egypt  and  Judah.  In  a  word,  the  alliance 
of  the  two  empires  seems  to  have  been  firmly  maintained  till  the 
overthrow  of  the  Median  dynasty  by  Cyrus. 

The  reign  of  Cyaxares  lasted  just  forty  year«,  the  probable  date 
of  his  death  being  b.c.  593.  Alyattes,  King  of  Lydia,  survived 
him  a  quarter  of  a  century,  dying,  after  a  reign  of  fifty-seven  years, 
in  B.C.  568,  just  seven  years  before  the  death  of  Xebuchadnezzar. 
The  interval  of  forty  years  thus  left  between  the  war  with  Media 
and  his  death  may  be  partly  filled  up  by  the  expulsion  of  the 
Cimmerians  and  attacks  upon  the  Grecian  colonies.  His  later 
yeai-s  seem  to  have  been  occupied  with  the  erection  of  his  tomb, 
an  edifice  which  Herodotus  pronounces  the  sole  remarkable  struc- 
ture raised  by  the  Lydian  kings,  and  Inferior  only  to  those  of 
Egypt  and  Babylon.*  Its  remains  still  stand  on  the  north  bank 
of  the  river  Hermus,  near  the  ruins  of  Sardis.  In  the  general 
idea  of  a  sepulchral  chamber  surmounted  by  a  lofty  pile,  it  resem- 
bled the  pyramids  of  Egypt,  but  its  structure  bears  a  much  closer 
resemblance  to  the  tumuli  or  Jjarrov^s  of  western  nations  ;  and  it 
is  surrounded  by  many  smaller  mounds  of  the  same  form,  mark- 
ing the  burying-place  of  Sardis.  It  was  formed  by  a  basement  of 
immense  blocks  of  stone,  above  which  was  heaped  a  mound  of 
earth,  surmounted  by  five  stone  pillars,  carved  with  inscriptions, 
which  were  standing  at  the  time  of  Herodotus.f  The  ground- 
plan  is  a  circle  (perhaps  originally  an  ellipse),  to  which  Herodotus 
gives  a  circumference  of  nearly  three-quarters  of  a  mile,  so  that 
the  area  was  even  larger  than  that  of  the  Great  Pyramid ;  but 
the  height  was  probably  much  less.  At  present  the  circumference 
is  just  half  a  mile.  Tlie  basement  is  jDartly  of  hewn  stone,  as  de- 
scribed by  Herodotus,  and  partly  cut  out  of  the  limestone  rock, 
whose  horizontal  strata  resemble  courses  of  masonry.  The  mound 
is  composed  of  sand  and  gravel,  apparently  from  the  bed  of  the 
Hermus  ;  its  greatest  slope  is  about  22°.  The  sepulchral  cham- 
ber, recently  discovered  by  M.  Spiegenthal,  the  Prussian  consul 
at  Smyrna,  is  almost  exactly  in  the  centre  of  the  tumulus  :  it  is  a 

*  mrod.  i.  93. 

f  Sir  Gardner  Wilkinson  notices  the  resemblance  of  the  structure  to  tombs  in 
Etniria  and  Greece,  like  that  of  Menecrates  at  Corfu,  and  probably  that  of  Agamem- 
non at  Mycenas  (the  so-called  "  Treasury  of  Atreus")  when  it  was  complete.  Note  in 
Rawlinson's  Herodotus. 

VOL.  I. — 17 


258  THE  MEDO-PERSIAN  EMPIRE.  [Chap.  X. 

little  more  than  11  feet  long,  near  8  feet  broad,  and  1  feet  high. 
Its  walls  are  composed  of  large  blocks  of  white  marble,  highly- 
polished  and  without  inscriptions.  It  contains  no  sarcoj^hagus  ; 
and  the  mound  bears  traces  of  having  been  excavated  and  rifled 
in  every .  direction.  Its  internal  construction  is  quite  different 
from  that  of  another  celebrated  sepulchral  mound  in  the  same 
region,  the  so-called  "  Tomb  of  Tantalus,"  near  Smyrna,* 

Ckcesus,  the  son  of  Alyattes,  was  the  last  and  greatest  king  of 
Lydia  ;  but  his  conspicuous  place  in  history  is  due  not  so  much 
to  his  wide  conquests,  his  proverbial  wealth,  or  his  vast  reverse 
of  fortune,  as  to  the  halo  of  romance  which  Herodotus  has  thrown 
around  his  story.  Singling  him  out  as  the  first  who,  within  his 
own  knowledge,  commenced  aggressions  on  the  Greeks,  he  regards 
him  throughout  as  the  fated  victim  of  that  retribution  which  the 
Greeks  ever  saw  pursuing  the  offender  with  steps  slow  but  sure  ; 
and  the  one  great  lesson  of  his  life  is  that  which  Solon  teaches  the 
king  amidst  all  his  pride  of  wealth,  and  which  the  helpless  cap- 
tive's confession  re-echoed  as  the  flames  began  to  rise  around  his 
living  funeral  pyre :  that  no  man,  however  fortunate,  can  be 
called  happy  till  he  dies — that  "  in  all  things  it  behoves  us  to 
mark  well  the  end  ;  for  oftentimes  God  gives  men  a  gleam  of 
happiness,  and  then  plunges  them  into  ruin."  f  The  same  idea 
runs  through  all  the  poetical  embellishments  of  the  story ; — the 
visit  of  Adrastus,  whose  very  name  (the  Inevitable)  indicates  the 
minister  of  fate,  and  by  whose  hand  the  son  of  Croesus  falls  ; — the 
dumbness  of  his  other  son,  miraculously  broken  to  save  his  father's 
life  ; — the  practical  irony  which  makes  Croesus  the  victim  of  am- 
biguous responses  from  the  oracles  whose  shrine  he  had  en- 
riched, and  whose  truth  he  fancied  he  had  tested  ; — the  blindness 
with  which  he  crosses  the  Halys,  trusting  to  the  promise  that  he 
should  overturn  a  mighty  empire,  and  then  finds  that  the  empire 
subverted  is  his  own  ; — his  doom  as  a  sacrifice  by  fire,  and  his 
rescue  by  the  power  of  the  Greek  god,  to  give  full  effect  to  the 
lesson  of  the  Greek  sage.  These  fascinating  legends  must  not  be 
wrenched  from  their  place  in  the  page  of  Herodotus,  nor  related 


*  Note  to  Rawlinson's  Herodotus,  i.  93,  founded  on  the  descriptions  of  Hamilton 
and  Spiegenthal. 

\  Herod,  i.  42.  The  disputed  question,  whether  Solon  ever  visited  Croesus,  matters 
little  or  nothing  to  the  historian's  purpose.  The  lesson  itself  is  one  on  which  the  Greek 
tragedians  delight  to  dwell,  but  perhaps  some  readers  may  be  less  familiar  with  the  more 
homely  Swedish  proverb:  "Praise  not  the  sun  before  the  day  is  out ;  praise  counsel 
when  you  have  followed  it,  and  ale  when  you  have  drunk  it." 


B.C.  593.]  REIGN  OF   ASTYAGES.  259 

as  if  they  were  real  history  ;  nor  must  we  forget,  on  the  other 
hand,  that  this  view  may  unfold  some  portion  of  the  inner  trutli 
of  such  a  career.  What  remains  for  the  historian  to  record  is  that 
Croesus,  ascending  the  Lydian  throne  at  the  age  of  thirty-five,  in 
a  reign  of  fourteen  years  (b.c.  568 — 554),  became  master  of  all  the 
Greek  states  of  Asia  Minor,  and  was  only  deterred  from  attacking 
the  islands  by  the  want  of  a  navy  ; — that  by  consulting  the  Greek 
oracles,  and  holding  frequent  intercourse  with  Greek  citizens,  lie 
made  the  Greeks  more  familiar  with  their  destined  enemies  in 
Asia ; — and  that,  after  conquering  all  Asia  Minor  west  of  the 
Halys,  he  ddred  to  match  himself  with  the  new  power  of  Cyrus 
and  to  avenge  the  fall  of  his  father-in-law  Astyages.  With  this 
view  he  formed  a  great  league  with  Egypt  and  Babylon  against 
Persia  ;  but  the  result  was  only  to  bring  his  empire?  to  a  sudden 
and  disastrous  end.  But,  to  understand  this  catastrophe,  we  must 
resume  tlie  thread  of  Median  history  from  the  death  of  Cyaxares. 

Astyages,  or  Asj)ades,  the  last  king  of  Media,  succeeded  liis 
father  Cyaxares  in  b.c,  593,  and  reigned  for  thirty-five  years,  till  he 
was  dethroned  by  Cyrus,  e.g.  558.  Excepting  a  single  account 
of  a  war  with  Armenia,*  which  has  every  mark  of  being  fabulous, 
his  history  presents  a  total  blank,  till  towards  its  close.  This 
silence  seems  to  confirm  the  traditional  view  of  his  character,  as 
a  peaceful  despot,  indulging  himself  with  the  quiet  enjoyment  of 
the  fruits  of  previous  conquests.  It  would  seem  that  "  the  three 
great  monarchies  of  the  East,  the  Lydian,  the  Median,  and  the 
Babylonian,  connected  together  by  treaties  and  royal  intermar- 
riages, respected  each  other's  independence,  and  levied  war  only 
against  the  lesser  powers  in  their  neighbourhood,  which  were  ab- 
sorbed without  much  difficulty,"  f  But  a  new  power  now  arose, 
from  within  the  Median  Empire,  to  make  an  entire  change  in  the 
political  state  of  Asia. 

The  Persians  have  already  been  mentioned  as  a  nation  closely 
connected  with  the  Medes,  in  race,  language,  and  religion.  Of 
the  fiimily  of  mankind  which  claimed,  not  unjustly,  the  distinc- 
tive name  of  "  Noble  "  (Arya),  the  Persians  formed  one  of  tlie 
noblest  types.  When  we  first  meet  them  in  history,  they  are  a 
race  of  hardy  mountaineers,  brave  in  war,  rude  in  manners,  sim- 
ple in  their  habits,  abstaining  from  wine,  and  despising  all  the 
luxuries  of  food  and  dress.     Though  uncultivated  in  art  and  sci- 


*  See  the  story,  as  given  by  the  Armenian  historian,  Moses  of  Chorene,  in  Rawhn- 
son's  Herodotus,  vol.  i.  p.  422.  \  Rawlinson's  Herodotus. 


260  THE  MEDO-PERSIAN  EMPIRE.  [Chap.  X. 

enee,  they  were  distinguished  for  an  intellectual  ability,  a  lively 
wit,  a  generous,  passionate,  and  poetical  temperament ;  quali- 
ties, however,  wliieh  easily  degenerated  into  vanity  and  want  of 
perseverance.  As  known  to  us  in  a  state  of  subjection  to  despotic 
power,  they  were  tainted  with  Asiatic  servility  to  their  rulers ; 
but  even  then  tliey  were  distinguished  by  that  rare  virtue  among 
the  Orientals,  a  love  of  truth. 

Amidst  the  unexampled  mutations  of  the  Persian  Empire,  the 
ancient  name  adheres  to  the  country  where  wc  iirst  find  the  Per- 
sians and  to  tlie  race  who  claim  to  be  their  purest  modern  repre- 
sentatives. The  name  of  the  latter  {Parsee)  is  in  fact  identical 
with  the  form  by  which  tlie  Hebrew  represents  the  native  name 
Parsa,  which  is  supposed  to  signify  "  Tigers."  The  country, 
which  still  bears  the  name  of  Fars,  or  Farsistan{^^  the  Land  of 
Fars  ")* — the  Persis  or  Persia  Proper  of  the  ancient  geographers — 
is  a  mountainous  region  in  the  south-west  of  Iran  where  the  great 
plateau  descends  to  the  eastern  shores  of  the  Persian  Gulf.  The 
margin  on  the  sea-coast  is  a  hot  and  arid  waste,  like  the  sandy 
deserts  of  Arabia  ;  and  the  same  character  is  borne  by  the  eastern 
region,  where  the  mountains  pass  into  the  table-land  of  Iran. 
Between  these  desert  tracts  lie  the  central  highlands,  which  are  a 
prolongation  of  the  mountain-chain  of  Zagros.  This  rugged  range 
contains  some  well-watered  plains  and  valleys,  rich  in  corn,  wine, 
and  fruits,  and  reaches  of  excellent  pasture-land.  This  is  especially 
the  case  towards  the  north,  where  the  plain  of  Shiraz,  besides 
producing  a  renowned  wine,  forms  a  favourite  residence  of  the 
modern  Shahs.  On  a  site  of  equal  beauty,  in  the  valley  of  the 
Bend-amiir^  stands  Persepolis,  the  capital  of  Darius,  the  ruins  of 
which,  near  Istakher,  bear  the  name  of  CheJil-Minar^  or  the  Forty 
Pillars.^  The  older  capital,  Pasargadjie,  lay  about  forty-two 
miles  further  to  the  north-west,  in  a  wilder  position  among  the 
hills  at  Murgaiib^  where  the  tomb  of  Cyrus  is  still  seen.  The  fer- 
tile tracts,  however,  are  exceptions  to  the  prevailing  character 
of  the  country  ;  the  hill-sides  are  generally  bare,  and  the  valleys 

*  The  letters  /  and  j>^  always  interchangeable,  arc  particularly  so  in  Persian. 
Niebuhr  supposes  that  the  original  Mngdom  of  Persia  comprised  not  only  Persis,  but 
Carmania  on  the  east,  and  part  at  least  of  Susiana  on  the  west.  He  holds  Herodotus  to 
be  in  error,  when  he  represents  the  Persians  under  Cyrus  as  the  inhabitants  of  a  small 
canton,  who  could  easily  be  assembled  in  one  place. 

f  These  magnificent  ruins,  consisting  of  two  great  palaces,  built  by  Darius  and 
Xerxes,  besides  temples  and  other  edifices,  cover  many  acres  of  ground.  They  are  de- 
scribed in  several  well-known  works.  See  especially  Fcrgusson's  Palaces  of  Nineveh 
and  Persepolis  Restored. 


THE  PERSIAN  LANGUAGE.  261 

little  more  than  narrow  ravines.  The  extent  of  Persia  Proper 
does  not  exceed  300  miles  from  north  to  south,  and  230  from 
east  to  west.  Such  were  the  narrow  limits  and  the  scanty  re- 
sources of  the  cradle  of  the  Persian  Empire. 

The  evidence  of  language  and  tradition,  with  other  grounds 
of  probability,  connect  the  Persians — most  closely  of  all  the 
peoples  of  Iran — with  the  Aryan  race  beyond  the  Indus  ;  but  as 
to  tlie  time  and  course  of  their  migrations  we  can  only  form  very 
uncertain  conjectures.  Entering  Iran,  most  probably,  with  the 
Medes,  their  passage  into  the  isolated  mountain  region  we  have 
described  seems  to  have  kept  them  freer  from  a  Turanian  admix- 
ture, as  it  certainly  preserved  them,  in  later  ages,  from  the  de- 
clension which  the  possession  of  empire  brought  upon  the  Medes. 
and  to  which  they  themselves  afterwards  succumbed. 

Tlie  Persians  appear  to  have  brought  with  them  into  these 
abodes  their  distinctive  language,  religion,  and  political  and  mili- 
tary institutions.  Their  language  formed  one  of  the  most  inter- 
esting tj'pes  of  the  Indo-European  family  of  speech,  being  closely 
connected  with  the  Aryan  dialects  of  India  on  the  one  hand,  and 
the  tongues  of  Modern  Europe  on  the  other.  In  the  course  of 
time  it  has  passed  through  no  less  than  five  different  stages ; — 
first,  the  Zend.)  or  most  ancient  dialect, — long  since  dead,  but  pre- 
served in  the  sacred  books  of  the  Zendavesta,— the  nearest  to 
Sanskrit  of  all  other  Indo-European  tongues  ; — next  the  Acha'nie- 
nian  Persian,  the  dialect  spoken  under  the  old  empire,  and  pre- 
served in  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  from  Cyrus  to  Artaxerxes 
Ochus  (b.c.  558 — 33S) ; — then,  the  Pehlevi,  or  various  dialects  of 
the  revived  empire  under  the  Sassanidai  (a.d.  226 — 651) ; — still 
later,  the  Pazend  or  Parsi ; — and  lastly,  the  mixed  Perfdan  of 
the  present  day,  which  is  largely  corrupted  with  Arabic. 

The  relio-iou  of  the  Persians  is  one  of  the  most  interestins: 
forms  of  belief  devised  by  the  search  of  a  keen  intellect  after  the 
truth,  when  the  light  of  revelation  has  been  obscured.  Erroneous 
views  have  long  prevailed  respecting  it,  through  the  confusion  of 
two  systems,  originally  distinct,  which  existed  among  the  Medo- 
Persians. 

Herodotus  and  the  Greek  writers  in  general  represent  the 
religion  of  the  Persians  as  an  elemental  worship.  Ascending  the 
highest  mountains,  they  sacrificed  to  the  firmament,  the  sun  and 
moon,  the  earth,  fire,  water,  and  the  winds.*     They  had  no  im- 

*  Herod,  i.  131.  lu  conformity  with  Greek  ideas,  Herodotus  says  that  they  called 
the  firmament  Jove. 


262  THE  MEDO-PERSIAN  EIVIPIRE.  [Chap.  X. 

ages  of  the  gods,  thougli  we  find  both  Assyrian  and  Egyptian 
emblems  on  their  sculptures ;  and  at  a  later  period  they  Avor- 
shipped  Beltis  or  Mylitta.*  Herodotus  is  mistaken  in  adding 
that  they  had  neitlier  temples  nor  altars.  Their  ministering 
priests  and  teachers  were  the  Magi,  a  learned  caste  like  the 
Chaldaeans  of  Babylonia,  and  addicted  to  those  arts  which  have 
received  from  them  the  name  of  magic. 

But  Herodotus  knows  nothing  of  that  other  aspect  of  the  Per- , 
sian  religion,  in  which  it  appears  as  a  philosophical  attempt  to 
explain  the  mystery  of  creation,  and  the  conflict  between  good  and 
evil,  by  what  is  called  the  principle  of  "  Dualism."  According  to 
this  doctrine,  there  were  two  great  First  Principles,  that  of  good 
and  that  of  evil,  each  the  author  of  a  distinct  creation,  and  each 
engaged  in  perpetual  conflict  with  the  other.  These  two  principles 
were  personified  by  the  Persians  under  the  names  of  Auramazda 
(Oromasdes,  Ormazd,  or  Ormuzd),  which  is  said  to  signify  "  the 
Great  Giver  of  Life,"  Rnd  Ahriman  (Arimanius)  "  the  Death- 
dealing."  The  one  was  the  lord  of  Life  and  Light,  the  other  of 
Death  and  Darkness.  Auramazda  created  the  earth  and  heaven, 
the  race  of  men,  and  all  that  ministers  to  their  well-being  ;  Ahri- 
man was  the  author  of  sin,  death,  disease,  war,  poverty,  tempest, 
cold,  and,  in  short,  of  all  agencies  adverse  to  human  life  and  hap- 
piness, and  tending  to  subvert  the  order  of  nature  established  by 
Auramazda.f  So  too  in  the  political  order  of  the  state :  it  is 
Auramazda  that  settles  the  king  firmly  on  his  throne  and  gives 
him  victory  over  his  enemies,  while  Ahriman  is  ever  planning  se- 
dition, rebellion,  and  defeat.  Each  was  the  creator  of  a  band  of 
spirits  inferior  to  himself,  the  ministers  of  his  will  and  the  agents 
of  his  works.  As  to  the  issue  of  the  conflict,  the  doctrine  seems 
to  have  been  silent,  at  least  in  its  earliest  and  simplest  form.  Xor 
could  it  consistently  be  otherwise ;  for,  as  the  belief  sprung  out 
of  an  insoluble  mystery  in  the  past,  it  could  offer  no  solution  of 
the  same  mystery  in  the  future.  The  very  need  of  supposing  the 
two  conflicting  principles  to  exist  at  all  would  involve  the  need 
of  supposing  their  conflict  to  last  for  ever.  And  here  we  see  how 
utterly  unlike  (except  perhaps  in  the  distorted  reflection  of  some 

*  Herodotus  confounds  this  deity  with  Mithra,  the  Persian  emblem  of  the  sun. 

•f-  It  is,  in  general  at  least,  beyond  the  province  of  the  historian  to  discuss  the  merits 
of  the  systems  in  philosophy  and  theology  which  he  has  occasion  to  describe.  But  we 
may  observe,  especially  in  the  case  of  the  physical  order  of  things,  how  completely  every 
system  of  dualism  breaks  down  at  the  first  step,  that  of  discriminating  what  is  really 
beneficial,  and  what  hurtful,  to  the  world  and  the  human  race. 


THE  PERSIAN  RELIGION.  263 

rays  of  truth)  is  the  Persian  dualism  to  the  Scripture  doctrine 
concerning  Satan  and  his  angels.  These,  so  far  from  being  essen- 
tial members  of  the  order  of  the  universe — essential  to  account  for 
the  existing  state  of  things — owe  their  condition  entirely  to  their 
having  rebelled  against  that  order.  Instead  of  befcg  a  self-existent 
and  independent  power,  the  dragon  is  bound  with  a  great  chain, 
doomed  to  defeat  and  perdition,  and  meanwhile  deprived  of  all 
liberty  to  work  out  his  malice  one  hair's-breadth  beyond  the 
limits  of  Divine  permission.  Nor  is  he  permitted  even  to  go  thus 
far,  excej)t  to  prove  in  the  end — 

"  How  all  his  malice  served  but  to  bring  forth 
Infinite  goodness,  grace,  and  mercy,  shown 
To  man  by  him  seduced,  but  on  himself 
Treble  confusion,  wrath,  and  vengeance  poured." 

The  devil  of  devil- worshippers  is  no  more  the  Satan  of  the  Bible 
than  the  idols  of  the  heathen  are  the  living  God. 

The  popular  idea  of  the  Persian  religion,  from  a  very  early 
period  to  the  present  day,  is  a  compound  of  the  two  systems  of 
Magianism  or  elemental  worship  (especially  that  of  fire  and  the 
sun)  and  Dualism.  There  was  no  doubt  a  time  when  some  such 
confusion  prevailed  among  the  Persians  themselves.  But  there 
are  good  reasons  for  concluding  that  these  two  systems  were 
originally  quite  distinct,  the  latter  only  existing  among  the  Per- 
sians, and  the  former  among  the  old  Turanian  tribes  of  Iran. 

Just  as  Herodotus,  in  describing  the  religion  of  the  Persians, 
knows  nothing  of  Dualism,*  so,  on  the  other  hand,  neither  do  the 
Achsemenian  inscriptions,  by  which  a  flood  of  new  light  has  been 
thrown  on  Medo-Persian  history,  nor  the  most  ancient  religious 
writings,  bear  any  trace  of  the  Magian  elemental  worship.  Nay 
more,  while  mentioning  Auramazda  as  the  supreme  god,  they  only 
contain  slight  allusions  to  the  Principle  of  Evil.f  Now,  if  we 
look  across  the  Indus,  to  the  country  from  whicli  the  Persians  are 
thought  to  have  migrated,  we  find  in  the  Yedas,  or  sacred  books 
of  the  ancient  Indians,  a  religion  based  on  Monotheism,  in  its 
spiritual  and  personal  foi*m,  which  might  be  easily  corrapted  into 

*  His  whole  description  refers  evidently  to  the  Magianism,  which  had  been  partially 
adopted  by  the  Persians,  and  extensively  by  the  Medes. 

f  "  In  the  great  inscription  of  Darius  at  Behistun,  the  false  religion  which  that  king 
displaced  is  said  to  have  been  established  by  the  '  god  of  lies.'  It  need  surprise  no  one 
that  notices  are  not  more  frequent,  or  that  the  name  Ahriman  does  not  occur.  The 
public  documents  of  modern  countries  make  no  mention  of  Satan." — Rawlinson,  Herudo' 
{us,  App.  to  Book  i.  Essay  v..  On  the  Helipion  of  the  Ancient  Persians. 


264  THE  :MED0-PERSIAN  EMPIRE.  [Chap.  X. 

Dualism.  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson  lias  indeed  put  forth  a  conjee 
ture,  far  too  ingenious  not  to  be  mentioned,  that  "  it  was  in  fact 
the  Dualistic  heresy  which  separated  the  Zend  or  Persian  branch 
of  the  Aryans  from  their  Vedic  brethren,  and  compelled  them  to 
migrate  to  the  westward."  At  all  events,  the  notices  of  their 
migration,  in  their  own  most  ancient  religious  books,  refer  all  the 
successes  and  disasters  of  the  Aryan  race  to  the  conflict  between 
Aiiramazda  and  Ahriman. 

Tlie  only  remaining  source,  from  which  we  can  trace  the  Magian 
elemental  worship,  is  from  the  Turanian  tribes  Avith  which  the 
Aryans  came  into  contact  when  they  entered  Iran.  How  far  this 
theory  is  confirmed  by  the  religions  of  the  Turanian  tribes  through- 
out the  world  is  a  question  both  in  itself  too  large  to  be  entered 
upon  here,  and  complicated  by  the  prevailing  degeneracy  of  the 
whole  race.  But  in  the  neighbouring  regions  of  Mesopotamia, 
which  we  have  seen  reason  to  believe  were  very  early  occupied 
by  a  Turanian  population,  the  prevailing  Sabseism  was  tinctured 
with,  and  may  even  have  sprung  from,  an  elemental  worship,  and 
Magianism  itself  seems  to  have  gained  a  footing  among  the  Chal- 
dsean  priests.  This  view  explains  the  fact  that,  while  the  Persians, 
long  isolated  in  the  southern  highlands,  preserved  their  Dualistic 
faith,  the  Medes,  who  were  brought  into  closer  contact  with  the 
old  Turanian  population,  completely  adopted  the  elemental  wor- 
ship. This  was  especially  the  case  in  the  northern  province,  which 
to  the  present  day  retains  the  memory  of  its  fame  as  tliechief  seat 
of  the  Magian  i-eligion,  in  its  name  Azerhijan  ("  the  Land  of  Fire  "). 
Tlie  contest  for  supremacy  between  the  Medes  and  Persians  in 
the  time  of  Cyrus  was  probably  religious  as  well  as  political ;  and 
this  was  certainly  the  case  when  the  Medes  recovered  their  supre- 
macy'- for  a  short  time,  under  the  Magian  Pseudo  Smerdis.  The 
triumph  of  the  Persians  under  Darius  Hystaspis  was  at  once  over 
the  Median  race  and  the  Magian  religion ;  and  the  fear  so  nearly  re- 
alized found  vent  in  proscriptions  and  cruel  massacres  of  the  Magi. 

At  length,  however,  the  religious  ascendancy,  which  a  power- 
ful priesthood  had  failed  to  hold,  was  recovered  by  the  enthusiasm 
of  a  devotee,  who  established  a  form  of  religion  compounded  of  the 
two  systems — in  one  word,  a  reformed  Magian  worship  combined 
with  the  Dualistic  creed  of  the  Persians.  Of  the  personal  history 
of  Zoroaster  *  or  Zerdusht,  we  know  next  to  nothing,  for  the 

*  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson  regards  the  name  Zara-thushtra  as  the  Aryan  form  of  Zira- 
shtar,  that  is,  the  seed  of  Venus. 


LEGENDARY  HISTORY   OF  ZOROASTER.  265 

Oriental  stories  are  for  the  most  part  pure  invention,  and  the  frag^ 
mentary  notices  of  the  classical  writers  teach  us  little  but  their 
ignorance  of  the  subject.  The  very  time  at  which  he  is  said  to 
have  lived — under  Gushtasp  or  Yishtaspa  (Hystaspes,  the  father  of 
Darius) — is  thought  to  have  been  purposely  fixed,  so  as  to  connect 
his  reform  of  religion  with  the  final  establishment  of  the  empire  ; 
and  here  the  story  is  self  convicted  of  fiction,  by  making  not  only 
Gushtasj),  but  also  his  father  Lohrasp,  rulers  of  the  Medo-Persian 
empire.  His  origin  from  Azerbijan,  a  province  with  a  large  ad- 
mixture of  Scythian  population,  and  the  chief  seat  of  Magianism, 
is  a  sign  of  his  connexion  with  this  form  of  worship.  The  favourite 
stories  of  miracles  heralding  the  birth  of  great  men  are  not  wanting 
in  his  case ;  and  he  is  said  to  have  been  only  ten  years  old,  when 
he  withdrew  to  a  cave  in  the  mountains  of  Elburz.  He  remained 
in  this  solitude  for  twenty  years,  favoured  with  divine  revelations 
from  Auramazda  and  his  attendant  spirits,  which  he  recorded  in 
the  book  called  Zend-avesta  ("  the  Living  Word  ").*  At  the  same 
time  he  received  the  sacred  fire  which  was  to  be  kept  perpetually 
alive  upon  the  earth.  The  key  to  his  whole  teaching  is  contained 
in  the  words  addressed  to  him  by  Auramazda  : — "  Teach  the  na- 
tions that  my  Light  is  hidden  under  all  that  shines.  Whenever 
you  turn  your  face  towards  the  Light,  Ahriman  will  be  seen  to 
fly.  In  this  world  there  is  nothing  superior  to  Light."  It  is  for 
this  reason  that  the  disciple  of  Zoroaster  turns  his  face  in  prayer 
to  the  sun,  as  the  purest  of  all  created  lights,  or  else  to  the  sacred 
fire  that  burns  on  the  altar.  The  doctrine  of  Dualism,  as  taught 
by  Zoroaster,  was  in  substance  what  has  been  already  stated  ;  but 
he  gave  the  preponderance  of  power  to  Auramazda,  Avho  alone 
of  the  two  principles  was  eternal,  and  would  ultimately  conquer 
Ahriman.  Zoroaster  was  sent  back  with  the  commission  to  de- 
clare to  Gushtasp  the  doctrines  of  the  Zend-avesta. 

Zoroaster  was  thirty  years  old  when  he  appeared  before  Gush- 
tasp at  Bactra  (Balkh).  His  first  convert  is  said  to  have  been  As- 
fandiyar,  the  son  of  Gushtasj),  who  gained  over  his  father  to  the 
new  religion,  which  soon  spread  throughout  Azerbijan.f  Zoroaster 
then  travelled,  propagating  his  faith,  not  only  through  all  the 
kingdom  of  Iran,  but  to  Chaldaea  on  the  one  side  and  India  on 


*  This  account  of  the  origin  of  the  Zend-avesta  is  altogether  fabulous. 

f  The  story  that  Gushtasp  had  12,000  skins  of  cows  prepared,  for  writing  on  them 
the  new  doctrines,  curiously  antedates  the  invention  of  parchment.  These  sacred 
writings  were  deposited  in  a  cave  at  Persepolis,  under  a  guard  of  Magians. 


266  THE   MEDO-PERSIAN  EMPIRE.  [Chap.  X. 

the  other.  One  view  of  his  mission  represents  him  as  purifying 
the  old  religion  from  corruptions  imported  from  these  two  coun- 
tries. On  Zoroaster's  return  to  Iran,  temples  for  the  worship)  of 
the  sacred  lire  were  erected  everywhere  by  Gushtasp,  wliose  zeal 
in  the  cause  involved  him  in  a  war  with  Arjasp,  the  king  of  Turan. 
which  was  triumphantly  ended  by  his  son  Asfandiyar.  Zoroaster 
died  not  long  before  this  victory,  at  the  age  of  seventy-six,  about 
B.C.  513.  We  relate  the  legend  as  one  of  those  embellishments 
which  religious  zeal  has  added  to  the  history  of  the  world.  Wliat- 
ever  may  be  the  real  history  of  the  movement,  the  general  result 
seems  to  have  been  this :  that,  in  the  old  Persian  empire,  from 
the  reign  of  Darius  Hystaspis  downward,  the  popular  religion 
was  the  modified  Magianism,  which  is  ascribed  to  Zoroaster, 
while  that  which  prevailed  at  court,  and  among  the  highest  Per- 
sian nobility,  was  nearer  to  the  ancient  faith.  But  at  the  time 
when  Cyrus  first  founded  the  empire,  the  latter  may  be  regarded 
as  the  true  Persian  religion,  and  in  direct  antagonism  to  the  Magiac 
worship  which  had  already  become  prevalent  in  Media. 

The  Persian  natioii  was  composed  of  ten  tribes ;  of  which^ 
Herodotus  tells  us,  three  were  noble,  three  agricultural,  and  four 
nomadic.  At  the  head  of  all  stood  the  royal  tribe  of  the  Pasar- 
gadee,  to  which  the  kings  belonged,  and  from  whom  the  ancient 
capital  took  its  name.  They  are  supposed  to  represent  the  horde 
which  first  migrated  from  beyond  the  Indus.  They  kept  them- 
selves distinct  from  the  other  tribes,  over  whom  they  enjoyed  pe- 
culiar privileges.  Among  the  three  agricultural  tribes,  the  Ger- 
manians  *  (or  Carmanians)  demand  mention  as  having  given  their 
name  to  the  country  east  of  Persis,  Carmania,  the  modern  Kerman. 
The  nomad  tribes  seem  to  have  been  partly  the  remains  of  the 
old  Turanian  inhabitants,  who  maintained  themselves  as  robbers 
in  the  mountain  fastnesses,  and  partly  kindred  hordes,  who  had 
immigrated  from  the  regions  east  of  the  Caspian.  Both  appear 
to  have  been  moulded,  to  a  great  degree,  into  the  Aryan  type. 

The  Persians  were  pre-eminently  a  military  race.  Mounted 
on  the  famous  breed  of  horses,  which  it  was  their  pride  to  cherish, 
their  nobles  formed  the  finest  cavalry  in  the  world.  They  had  a 
strong  infantry  ;  and  not  only  the  nomad  tribes,  but  the  whole  na- 
tion, were  expert  archers.  On  the  sculptures  at  Persepolis,  we  see 
their  warriors  armed  with  long  lances,  oval  shields,  bows  with 

*  This  is  a  curious  case  of  purely  accidental  resemblance  between  the  names  of 
distant  and  distinct  nations.  We  have  another  example  in  the  Iberians  of  Spain  and 
of  Georgia. 


B.C.  700.  ?]     BEGINNING   OF  THE  PERSIAN  KINGDOM.  267 

the  ends  curved  backward,  and  quivers.  Some  are  clothed  with 
tunics  and  trousers,  and  wear  a  cap  of  the  Phrygian  shape  ;  others 
wear  long  robes  and  upright  head-dresses.  In  the  field  their  onset 
was  impetuous,  and  their  courage  great ;  but  they  wanted  the 
steadiness  of  forces  trained  to  act  well  together. 

Their  military  spirit  was  kept  in  full  vigour  by  their  hardy 
mountain  life,  their  simple  and  temperate  habits,  and  the  strict 
discipline  in  which  they  were  trained  from  their  youth  up.  Xeno- 
phon  may  have  borrowed  many  details  given  in  the  Gyrqpoedia 
from  his  favourite  Spartan  institutions  ;  but  there  is  no  reason  to 
doubt  the  existence  of  a  discipline  which  taught  self-command  and 
self-denial,  respect  to  elders,  and  obedience  to  authority. 

The  close  political  connexion  between  the  Modes  and  Persians, 
from  a  very  remote  antiquity,  is  proved,  as  we  have  already 
observed,  by  the  very  formulge  of  the  empire.  Had  the  latter  been 
merely  conquered  by  the  former,  from  a  previous  state  of  indepen- 
dence, like  other  surrounding  tribes,  we  should  never  have  heard 
of  "  the  law  of  the  Medes  and  Persians^  which  altereth  not." 
Whatever  the  nature  of  their  connexion  with  Media  may  have  been, 
the  Persians  had  a  separate  government  under  their  own  kings. 
These  first  appear  in  history  under  the  title  of  the  Ach^menid^, 
derived,  it  is  said,  from  Achsemenes,  who  founded  the  dynasty 
about  B.C.  TOO.  Herodotus  gives  us  the  names  of  four  predecessors 
of  the  great  Cyrus,  in  a  direct  line  from  father  to  son, — Teispes,* 
Cambyses  I.,  Cyrus  I.,  and  Cambyses  II.  He  makes  the  last 
prince  only  a  Persian  noble,  whereas  the  monuments  call  the  father 
of  Cyrus  a  king  ;  but  the  use  of  the  title  proves  nothing  as  to  the 
condition  of  the  state.  There  seems  no  doubt  that  Persia  lost  at 
least  the  full  exercise  of  her  independence  as  the  Median  power 
grew.  From  the  analogy  of  other  tribes,  strongly  placed  on  the 
confines  of  a  great  empire — as  in  the  relations  of  Media  herself  to 
Assyria — it  seems  most  probable  that  Cyaxares  was  able  to  enforce 
an  acknowledgment  of  his  supremacy,  and  the  payment  of  a  tribute 
from  the  Persian  king.  The  question  is,  indeed,  of  comparatively 
little  moment,  for  the  revolution  effected  by  Cyrus  was  not  so  much 
the  liberation  of  a  subject  race,  as  the  conquest  of  an  emj^ire  by  a 
sudden  invasion.  And  this  one  fact  is  nearly  all  that  we  can 
detect  with  certainty  amidst  the  halo  of  romantic  legend,  with 

*  We  learn  from  another  source  that  Teispes  married  his  daughter,  Atossa,  to  the 
king  of  Cappadocia.  Such  an  alliance  with  so  distant  a  state  indicates  the  possession 
of  considerable  power.  Observe,  in  the  above  list,  that  alternation  of  names  which  was 
so  common  likewise  in  Greek  families. 


368  THE  MEDO-PERSIAN  EMPIRE.  [Chap.  X. 

which  the  Persian  poets  invested  the  rising  of  their  imperial 
Sun.* 

From  the  vast  and  inconsistent  mass  of  such  legends,  Herodotus 
professes  to  have  selected  the  account  which  seemed  the  least 
improbable — a  confession  which  at  once  warns  us  against  mistaking 
his  narrative  for  a  real  history.  The  story  is  too  well  known  to 
need  telling  more  tlian  very  briefly  ;  but  too  famous  to  be  omitted 
altogether. 

Astyages,  wliom  we  have  seen  succeeding  to  the  empire  of 
Cyaxares  his  father  (b.c.  593),  gave  his  daughter  Mandane  in 
marriage  to  Cambyses,  a  Persian  noble  of  a  quiet  temper,  lest  a 
higher  alliance  among  the  Median  nobles  should  fulfil  a  dream, 
which  had  threatened  the  conquest  of  all  Asia  by  her  offspring. 
The  dream  returned,  and  the  king  sent  for  Mandane,  intending  to 
destroy  the  child  she  was  about  to  bear.  Harpagus,  a  Median 
courtier,  to  whom  the  commission  was  entrusted,  gave  the  child  to 
MitradateSjf  the  king's  herdsman,  to  expose  in  the  mountains 
north  of  Ecbatana.  The  herdsman's  wife,  who  had  just  brought 
forth  a  still-born  child,  persuaded  him  to  expose  the  body,  and  to 
bring  up  as  their  own  the  child,  who  was  afterwards  called 
Cyrus.:]:  On  a  time,  when  the  boy  was  ten  years  old,  he  was 
chosen  by  his  playfellows  to  be  their  king  ;  and  he  took  instinc- 
tively to  the  part,  not  only  duly  ordering  his  guards,  and  courtiers, 
messengers,  and  chief  minister  (the  King's  Eye  ),  and  his  public 
works,  but  severely  scourging  a  disobedient  officer.  The  latter 
boy  happened  to  be  the  son  of  a  Median  of  distinction,  who  at 
once  carried  his  complaint  before  Astyages.  A  recognition 
follows,  the  herdsman  and  Harpagus  confess  the  truth  :  Astyages 
professes  pleasure  that  the  design,  of  which  he  had  long  since 
repented,  had  miscarried ;  and  invites  Harpagus  to  a  banquet ; 
the  flesh  of  his  own  son  is  sei'ved  up  to  the  unsuspecting  father, 
who  is  then  shown  the  head  in  a  basket,  and  asked  by  the  king  if 
he  knew  what  animal's  flesh  he  had  been  eating.  He  replied  that 
he  knew  well,  and  that  the  king's  pleasure  was  his  own  ;  and  then 
retired,  to  bury  what  remained  of  his  son,  and  to  meditate  revenge. 

The  king  next  consulted  the  Magians  what  he  should  do  with 

*  Such  is  the  meaning  of  the  name  Cyrus  (Koresh),  from  kokr,  the  srin. 

f  This  name,  afterwards  so  famous,  signifies  "given  to  the  sun"  (Mitra  or 
Mithra.) 

■\.  The  name  of  the  herdsman's  wife,  Cyno  (the  Greek  word  for  bitch),  betrays  a 
rationalistic  attempt  to  explain  what  was  doubtless  the  original  story,  that  Cyrus  waa 
Buckled  by  a  bitch.  There  was  a  similar  perversion  of  the  legend  of  the  she-wolf  of 
Romulus  and  Kemus.     See  Grote,  History  of  Greece,  vol.  iv.  p.  246. 


LEGENDARY   STORY   OF   CYRUS.  369 

Cyrus  ;  and  persuaded  by  them  that  his  dream  had  been  fulfilled 
by  the  boy's  exercise  of  royalty  in  play,  he  sent  him  back  to  his 
father  and  mother  in  Persia.  Cyrus  arrived  with  a  mind  full  of 
ambitious  hopes,  for  on  the  road  he  had  learnt  the  whole  story  from 
his  escort.  He  grew  up  to  be  the  bravest  and  most  popular  of  the 
youths  of  his  own  age.  Harpagus  had  meanwhile  solicited  the 
Median  nobles,  who  were  malcontent  with  the  king's  harsh  rule, 
to  conspire  for  the  deposition  of  Astyages  and  the  elevation  of 
Cyrus  to  the  throne.  When  the  plot  was  ripe,  he  despatched  a 
letter  by  a  stratagem  across  the  guarded  frontier,  inviting  Cyras 
to  revolt.  The  prince  assembled  the  three  noble  tribes,  and  by  a 
sort  of  acted  apologue  in  a  truly  Oriental  spirit,  showed  them  the 
blessings  of  liberty  and  empire.  He  then  led  them  against  Asty- 
ages, who  was  so  infatuated  as  to  place  Harpagus  in  command  of 
his  troops.  A  few  only  fought,  who  were  privy  to  the  conspiracy  ; 
some  deserted  to  the  Persians  ;  and  most  tied.  Astyages  received 
the  news  with  threats  of  vengeance  upon  Cyrus,  and  impaled  the 
Magians  who  had  advised  to  spare  his  life.  He  then  marched  out 
at  the  head  of  all  who  were  left  in  the  city,  young  and  old,  lost 
his  last  battle,  and  fell  into  the  hands  of  Cyrus.  It  is  common  in 
these  Oriental  fables  to  allow  the  dethroned  captive  the  consolation 
of  keen  wit ;  and  thus  Astyages  replies  to  the  insults  of  Harpa- 
gus by  taunting  him  with  the  folly  of  enslaving  his  country  to  the 
Persians  for  the  sake  of  a  revenge  which  he  might  have  enjoyed 
by  seizing  the  throne  for  himself. 

Another  account,  which  seems  to  come  from  Ctesias,  represents 
the  contest  as  much  longer  and  more  doubtful.  Astyages  was 
victorious  in  two  battles,  and  marched  upon  the  Persian  capital, 
Pasargadse,  his  attack  on  which  was  repulsed,  and  the  same  day 
the  Persians  defeated  him  in  a  fourth  battle,  killing  60,000  of 
the  Medes.  Persisting,  however,  in  his  attempt  to  conquer  the 
rebels,  Astyages  risked  a  fifth  battle,  also  near  Pasargad^,  in 
which  he  was  again  defeated,  and  fled  from  the  field.  The  prov- 
inces submitted  in  turn  to  Cyrus,  who  pursued  Astyages  and  took 
him  prisoner.  There  are  several  indications  confirmatory  of  the 
length  and  obstinacy  of  the  conflict.*     At  all  events,  the  one 

*  Among  these  is  the  well-known  passage  of  the  Anabasis  (iii.  4,  sec.  8.),  in  which 
Xenophon  names  the  ruined  cities  of  Larissa  and  Mespila  on  the  Tigris  (on  or  near 
the  site  of  Nineveh),  as  the  scenes  of  an  obstinate  resistance  by  the  Medes,  when  the 
Persians  took  from  them  the  supremacy.  In  this  passage,  Xenophon,  as  the  historian, 
expressly  contradicts  the  story  of  Xenophon,  the  romance  writer,  in  the  Cyropadia. 
concerning  the  quiet  succession  of  Cyrus  to  the  empire  after  Cyaxares,  the  son  of 
Astyages. 


270  THE  ]\IEDO-PERSIAN  EMPIRE.  [Chap.  X. 

great  historic  fact  remains,  and  indeed  sums  up  nearly  all  we 
know  of  tlie  reign  of  Astyages,  that  the  conquest  by  Cyrus  and 
the  Persians  transferred  to  the  latter  the  supremacy  of  the  Medo- 
Persian  Empire.  Herodotus  adds  that  Cyrus  kept  Astyages  at 
his  court,  and  treated  him  well  for  the  rest  of  his  life  :  Ctesias 
says  that  he  set  him  over  a  satrapy  :  and  we  have  seen  reason  to 
think  it  not  improbable  that  he  may  be  that  "  Darius  the  Median," 
who  exercised  the  royal  authority  at  Babylon  after  its  capture  by 
Cyrus.*  The  reign  of  Astyages  lasted  live-and-thirty  years,  an^ 
ended  probably  in  b.c.  558. 

The  totally  different  account  of  these  events  in  Xenophon's 
Cyropcedia  deserves  a  passing  notice,  not  certainly  because  his 
philosophic  romance  has  any  more  historic  value  than  the  poetic 
legends  related  by  Herodotus  ; — for,  while  the  latter  have  some 
sanction  from  national  traditions,  the  former  is  the  writer's  own 
invention ; — but  because  of  some  collateral  issues  dependent  on 
our  estimate  of  the  work.  We  have  had  occasion  to  speak,  in  the 
case  of  the  Median  king  Deioces,  of  the  tendency  of  the  Greek 
writers  to  turn  the  history  of  other  countries  into  an  illustration 
of  their  own  views  of  philosophy  and  politics.  The  Cyropcedia  is 
such  a  work,  by  an  author  honestly  desirous  of  recommending  the 
practical  side  of  the  Socratic  philosophy,  but  distrustful  of  the 
liberty  which  he  thought  his  own  citizens  had  abused.  He  had 
been,  in  his  early  manhood,  a  disciple  of  Socrates,  whose  conver- 
sations on  self-command  and  on  the  affairs  of  life  made  a  deeper 
impression  on  his  mind  than  the  speculations  which  fascinated  his 
fellow-disciple  Plato.  He  treasured  up  his  master's  precepts  for 
the  care  of  the  body  and  the  regulation  of  the  desires,  for  the 
economy  of  resources  and  the  preservation  of  friends.  In  the 
Memorah'dia  he  recorded  such  discourses  to  defend  Socrates 
against  the  charge  of  corrupting  the  youth  :  in  the  Cyropcedia  he 
set  himself  to  show  how  the  same  lessons,  learnt  in  youth  and 
practised  throughout  life,  would  fit  a  man  to  secure  the  respect 
and  obedience  of  his  subjects,  and  so  prove  that  the  government  of 
men  is  not  so  difficult  a  task  as  is  commonly  supposed.  The  great 
monarchies  of  the  East  have  always  had  a  fascination  for  writers 
on  such  a  theme ;  and  Xenophon  was  perhaps  not  unwilling  to 
draw  an  invidious  contrast  between  the  Greek  republics  and  the 
absolute  monarchy  of  Persia.  The  traditional  greatness  of  its 
founder  was  bright  enough,  and  at  the  same  time  sufiiciently 
remote  to  protect  the  writer  from  the  charge  of  absurdity,  in 

*  See  chap.  ix.  p.  239. 


THE  TRUE  CHARACTER  OP  CYRUS.         371 

choosing  Cyras  for  the  pattern  of  the  virtues  he  desired  to  illus- 
trate,— an  obedient  child,  a  courageous  and  modest  youth,  a 
virtuous  and  generous  man,  a  successful  conqueror,  a  wise  and 
prosperous  and  paternal  ruler.  The  same  consistent  ideal  runs 
through  all  the  life  of  Cyrus.  Whether  his  childish  simplicity 
puts  to  shame  the  excesses  of  his  grandfather,  or  his  manly  frank- 
ness disarms  the  jealousy  of  his  uncle  ; — whether  he  discourses  to 
his  comrades  in  the  tent,  or  to  his  children  on  his  death-bed,  he  is 
still  the  great  exemplar  of  the  Socratic  philosophy  according  to 
Xenophon's  conception,  acted  out  on  the  loftiest  stage  and  on  the 
grandest  scale.  To  detect  the  element  of  fiction  in  such  a 
picture — which  Xenophon  never  meant  to  be  taken  for  a  portrait 
— it  is  enough  to  remember  the  simple  fact,  that  Cyrus  was  an 
Asiatic  conqueror  in  a  rude  age,  and  the  leader  of  a  fierce  band 
of  warriors.  The  conquests  he  effected  and  the  empire  he  organ- 
ized, his  generous  policy  towards  the  Jews,  and  his  clemency  in 
some  striking  cases,  though  contrasted  with  arrogance  and  cruelty 
in  others,  prove  his  possession  of  noble  as  well  as  brilliant  quali- 
ties. But  if  we  would  seek  further  for  his  likeness,  we  must 
assuredly  look  rather  to  Genghis  Khan  or  Timour  than  to  the 
Cyrus  of  Xenophon's  romance; 

We  have  dwelt  upon  this  view,  because  a  certain  class  of 
writers  have  done  all  they  could  to  make  the  Cyrus  of  Xenophon 
a  hero  of  popular  history,  from  motives  deserving  of  respect,  but 
in  a  spirit  subversive  of  historic  truth.  In  Xenophon's  picture 
they  seem  to  themselves  to  recognise  the  Cyrus  of  the  Bible,  both 
as  to  the  incidents  of  the  story,  and  especially  as  to  the  character 
of  the  man.  Almost  the  sole  argument  for  the  former  view  is 
derived  from  Daniel's  allusions  to  the  capture  of  Babylon,  and 
the  reign  of  the  Mede  Darius.  We  have  already  shown  that  there 
is  no  need  to  seek  for  Darius  in  the  Cyaxares  of  Xenophon  ;  and 
on  the  other  hand,  the  unambiguous  prophecy  of  Isaiah  makes 
Cyrus  alone  the  conqueror  of  Babylon, 

The  temptation  to  recognise  in  the  virtuous  prince  of  Xeno- 
phon the  chosen  servant  of  God,  as  predicted  by  Isaiah,  will  ]iot 
mislead  the  thoughtful  student  of  Divine  Providence.  That  Cyrus 
was  "  the  anointed  of  Jehovah,  whose  right  hand  lie  strengthened, 
to  subdue  nations  before  him" — "  His  Shepherd,  to  perform  all  His 
pleasure,"  in  leading  back  His  people  to  Jerusalem,*  implies  no 
more  of  true  piety  in  him  than  in  the  chosen  instruments  of  God's 
WTath,  such  as  Nebuchadnezzar.    His  own  professions  to  the  same 

*  Isaiah  xlv.  1 ;  xliv.  28. 


273  THE   MEDO-PERSIAN  EMPIRE.  [Chap.  X. 

eJBfect*  are  no  stronger  tlian  those  uttered  by  tlie  Babylonian  tyrant 
when  convinced  of  Jehovali's  power.  In  one  word,  tlie  error  in 
question  is  rebuked  by  the  very  terms  in  wliich  the  prophet  con- 
cludes his  address  to  Cyrus  as  the  Lord's  anointed  :  "  I  have 
surnamed  thee,  though  tluju  hast  not  known  nieP  f  Cyrus  was  the 
unconscious  instrument  in  God's  hand  to  perform  a  certain  work, 
and  we  need  not  falsify  history  to  maintain  the  spotless  purity  of 
his  character. 

The  dethronement  of  Astyages  by  Cyrus  is  alleged  by  Herodo- 
tus as  the  immediate  cause  of  the  war  between  Lydia  and  Persia. 
Besides  the  motive  of  avenging  his  father-in-law,  Crresus  hastened 
to  attack  Cyrus  before  he  should  become  too  powerful.  He  forth- 
with began  those  consultations  of  the  Greek  oracles,  of  which 
Herodotus  relates  such  curious  stories, — stories  furnishing  abun- 
dant proof  of  the  system  of  trickery  and  corruption  which  main- 
tained the  reputation  of  those  oracles.  These  frequent  missions 
to  Greece  led  to  his  forming  an  alliance  with  Sparta,  the  earliest 
of  those  Oriental  alliances  by  which  the  Greeks  impaired  their 
power  to  resist  the  common  enemy.  Meanwhile,  Croesus  organ- 
ized a  vast  confederacy  of  the  three  great  monarchies  of  Lydia, 
Babylonia,  and  Egypt,  against  Cyrus  ;  but  he  gave  neither  Nabo- 
nadius  nor  Amasis  time  to  bring  him  any  effectual  aid.  Trusting 
to  a  studiously  ambiguous  oracle,  he  led  his  army  across  the 
Halys  into  Cappadocia,  the  westernmost  province  of  the  Medo- 
Persian  empire,  and  took  the  chief  city  of  Pteria,  a  district  near 
Sinope,  reducing  its  Syrian  inhabitants  to  slavery. 

Cyrus,  on  his  part,  was  equally  prepared  to  meet  him.  He 
had  subdued  all  the  northern  and  western  provinces  of  the  old 
Median  Empire,  and  had  solicited  the  lonians  to  revolt  from 
Croesus,  but  in  vain.  His  rapid  marches  brought  him  into  the 
district  of  Pteria,  which  the  Lydians  were  ravaging,  unsus})icious  of 
his  near  approach,  and  unsupported  by  their  allies.  Croesus  was 
compelled  to  risk  a  battle  with  numbers  inferior  to  the  enemy  ;  and 
an  indecisive  conflict  was  closed  by  the  fall  of  night.  Seeing  that  a 
defeat  would  now  be  utter  ruin,  Croesus  at  once  began  his  retreat 
to  Sardis,  and  there  disbanded  his  mercenary  troops,  intending  to 
renew  the  war  with  the  ensuing  spring.  Meanwhile  he  summoned 
his  allies,  Egypt,  Babylon,  and  the  Lacedaemonians,  to  send  their 
succours  to  Sardis  by  the  fifth  month.  He  counted  on  the  long 
delays  by  which  Oriental  campaigns  are  usually  divided ;  but 
Cyrus  and  his  Persians  made  war  on  a  different  system.    He  pur- 

*  Ezra  i.  1,  2.  \  Isaiah  xlv.  4. 


B.C.  554.]  CONQUEST   OF  LYDIA.  278 

sued  Crcesiis  with  such  speed  as  to  be  his  own  herald  before  the 
walls  of  Sardis.  This  celebrated  city,  the  ruins  of  which  still  bear 
the  name  of  SarU  stood  on  the  southern  side  of  the  broad  valley  of 
Hermus,  at  a  point  where  it  is  contracted  by  the  northern  spurs  of 
Tmolus.  A  precipitous  ro(;k  formed  its  citadel,  and  a  level  plain 
spread  out  in  front  of  the  city.  Into  this  plain  Croesus  led  out 
his  native  Lydian  forces,  a  splendid  cavalry  armed  with  long 
lances  ;  for  the  Lydians  had  not  yet  degenerated  into  a  byword 
for  effeminate  luxury.  Cyrus  placed  his  camels  in  the  front,  then 
his  infantry,  and  his  cavalry  in  the  rear,  relying  on  the  aversion 
which  the  horse  is  said  to  have  for  the  camel.  The  stratagem  was 
successful :  the  horses  of  the  Lydians  turned  away  in  fright,  but 
their  riders  dismounted  to  engage  the  Persian  infantry,  and  even 
at  this  disadvantage  they  fought  long  before  they  were  driven  back 
within  the  walls.  Tlie  siege  of  Sardis  was  now  fonned,  and  Croesus 
sent  messengers  to  hasten  the  succours  of  his  allies,  but  the  city 
was  taken  before  they  could  arrive.  There  are  different  versions 
of  its  capture ;  but  we  have  no  reason  to  doubt  the  story  of 
Herodotus,  that  a  Mede,  who  had  observed  a  Lydian  soldier 
descend  the  rock  to  fetch  his  fallen  helmet,  mounted  by  the  same 
path  to  the  seemingly  impregnable  citadel ;  his  comrades  followed 
till  a  large  number  gained  the  rock,  and  so  the  city  was  taken. 
Sufficient  allusion  has  already  been  made  to  Herodotus's  romantic 
story  of  the  manner  in  which  the  life  of  Croesus  was  saved.*  He 
was  treated  with  respect  by  Cyrus  ;  and  the  wisdom  he  had  learnt 
by  adversity  enabled  him  to  give  good  counsel  to  that  king  and  his 
successor.f  His  reign  lasted  fourteen  years  ;  his  fall  is  placed  by 
most  chronologers  at  e.g.  546,  but  by  Rawlinson  at  b.c.  554. 

Cyrus  left  a  Persian  garrison  in  the  citadel  of  Sardis ;  but 
entrusted  the  government  of  the  country  to  a  Lydian,  named  Pac- 
tyas,  who  revolted  soon  after  the  conqueror's  departure  homeward. 
This  revolt  hastened  that  collision  between  Persia  and  the  Greek 
colonies,  which  was  an  inevital)le  result  of  the  conquest  of  Lydia. 
While  the  contest  was  impending,  as  we  have  seen,  Cyrub  had 
incited  the  lonians  to  revolt  from  Croesus ;  but  after  the  victoiy, 
he  had  rejected  their  petition  that  they  might  remain  tributaries  as 
before :  Miletus  was  the  only  city  to  which  these  terms  were  granted. 
In  conjunction  with  the  ^olians,  who  resolved  to  follow  the  course 

*  There  is  no  satisfactory  evidence  that  the  old  Persian  religion  required,  or  even 
permitted,  human  sacrifices  in  honour  of  fire. 

f  See  the  story  of  his  having  nearly  fallen  a  victim  to  the  mad  fury  of  Cambyses, 
in  Herodotus,  ii.  36. 

VOL.  I. — 18 


274  THE  JIEDO-PERSIAN  EMPIRE.  [Chap.  X. 

they  might  decide  on,  tliey  prepared  to  defend  themselves,  and 
asked  aid  from  Sparta.  The  Lacedaemonians  would  do  no  more 
than  send  commissioners  to  Phocsea — the  city  which  had  led  the 
embassy,  and  which  soon  after  gained  by  her  devotion  a  lasting 
fame — to  investigate  the  state  of  affairs.  One  of  the  commis- 
sioners proceeded  to  the  court  of  Cyrus  at  Sardis,  and  forbade  him 
in  the  name  of  the  Lacedaemonians  to  molest  any  of  tlie  Greek 
cities,  for  they  would  not  suft'er  it.  Turning  to  some  Greeks  who 
were  standing  by,  Cyrus  asked  who  and  how  many  were  these 
Lacedaemonians,  that  they  dared  to  send  him  such  a  warning  ;  and 
having  received  the  reply,  he  said  to  the  Spartan  herald  :  "  I  have 
never  yet  been  afraid  of  any  men,  who  have  a  set  place  in  the 
middle  of  their  city,  where  they  come  together  to  cheat  each  other 
and  forsweaj*  themselves.  If  I  live,  the  Spartans  shall  have 
troubles  enough  of  their  own  to  talk  of,  without  concerning  them- 
selves with  the  lonians."  * 

When  Pactyas  revolted,  his  first  step  was  to  enrol  Greek 
mercenaries  from  the  -coast,  with  whom  he  marched  against  Sardis, 
and  besieged  tlie  Persians  in  the  citadel.  But  on  the  approach  of 
the  army  sent  against  him  by  Cyrus,  under  Mazares,  he  fled  to  the 
Greek  city  of  Cyme.  The  Cymasans  refused  to  give  him  up,  though 
warned  to  consent  by  the  oracle  of  Branchidae  near  Miletus,  which 
repaid  the  favour  of  Cyrus  by  abandoning  the  lonians  as  a  doomed 
nation.  Too  weak,  however,  to  protect  the  refugee,  the  Cymaeans 
conveyed  him  to  Mytilene  and  thence  to  Chios  ;  and  the  Chians 
earned  lasting  shame  by  giving  him  up  for  the  bribe  of  a  certain 
district  on  the  mainland. 

Armed  with  this  new  cause  of  quarrel,  Mazares  proceeded  to 
attack  the  Grecian  cities  ;  and  the  conquest  was  completed  by  his 
successor  Hai'pagus  with  unrelenting  rigour.  In  this  war  we  find 
the  Persians  using  the  mojde  of  attack,  which  we  have  noticed  as 
represented  on  the  Assyrian  sculptures,  by  means  of  a  mound  of 
earth  piled  up  against  the  wall  of  the  besieged  city.  Resistance, 
however  brave,  was  ov^powered  by  the  numbers  of  the  Persians. 
To  strike  terror,  probably,  by  a  severe  example,  the  inhabitants 
of  Priene,  the  first  city  attacked,  were  sold  as  slaves.  The  rest 
seem  to  have  been  reduced  from  their  position  of  tributaries,  and  in 
some  cases  only  allies,  which  they  had  held  under  Croesus,  to  an 


*  "  lonians"  seems  to  have  been  the  general  name  used  by  the  Asiatics  for  the 
Greek  colonists,  .and  originally,  indeed,  for  the  Greek  nation,  aa  we  see  in  the  Javan 
of  Genesis  x. 


B.C.  553.]  KEDUCTION  OF  IONIA.  275 

entire  subjection  to  the  "  Great  King" — for  the  enslaved  Greeks 
soon  learnt  to  call  their  master  by  his  high-sounding  Oriental  titles. 

All  the  Greek  cities  on  the  coast  were  thus  subdued,  except 
Miletus,  which  had  purchased  safety  by  submission,  and  two  others 
whose  nobler  choice  it  remains  to  mention.  As  to  the  adjacent 
islands  of  the  lonians,  Herodotus  makes  the  sweeping  statement 
that  they  submitted  through  dread  of  the  same  fate.  Samos  cer- 
tainly remained  independent  till  the  reign  of  Darius,  and  in  this 
interval  she  reached  the  height  of  her  power  under  Polycrates. 
Chios  and  Lesbos  seem  to  have  preferred  the  advantages  of  their 
connexion  with  the  mainland  to  the  doubtful  issue  of  a  continual 
state  of  war  ;  and  the  Persians,  being  as  yet  without  a  navy,  would 
naturally  grant  them  favourable  terms.*  Thus  did  Cyrus  plant 
his  foot  on  the  first  step  of  the  chain  of  islands  that  bridge  over 
the  sea  dividing  Asia  from  the  free  republics  which  he  had 
threatened  should  feel  his  power. 

We  spoke  just  now  of  two  cities  which  escaped  subjection  by 
a  nobler  choice.  The  two  cities  were  Teos  and  Phocsea,  whose 
inhabitants  abandoned  their  homes  to  seek  others  beyond  the  sea. 
A  voice  was  indeed  raised  to  urge  the  like  sacrifice  upon  the  whole 
nation.  Already,  when  they  were  first  threatened  by  the  power  of 
Croesus,  Thales  of  Miletus  had  advised  the  formation  of  a  single 
seat  of  government  at  Teos,  as  the  central  city  of  Ionia,  all  the 
cities  still  retaining  their  own  laws  ;  and  now  Bias,  of  Priene, 
another  of  the  "  Seven  Sages  "  of  that  time,  came  forward  at  the 
united  festival  which  was  celebrated  at  the  Panionium,  to  urge 
the  whole  nation  to  set  sail  in  a  body  for  Sardinia,  and  there  to 
found  a  Pan-Ionic  city.  Masters  of  the  largest  island  in  the  world,f 
they  might  enjoy  not  only  freedom,  but  a  wide  maritime  empire, 
instead  of  remaining  to  be  slaves  in  Asia.  The  sacrifice  demanded 
was  too  great  for  any  but  the  two  cities  we  have  named,  and  even 
in  them  a  portion  of  the  inhabitants  remained  behind.  Two  bodies 
of  emigrants  from  Teos  founded  Abdera  in  Thrace  and  Phanagoria 
on  the  Cimmerian  Bosporus.  The  self-imposed  exile  of  the  Pho- 
c£eans  is  far  more  interesting.  They  had  long  been  conspicuous 
as  the  most  adventurous  Greek  sailors  who  had  issued  from  the 
ports  of  Asia  Minor.  They  had  explored  the  recesses  of  the 
Adriatic,  and  traced  the  northern  coasts  of  the  Mediterranean  as 

*  The  submission  of  Chios,  and  its  terms,  are  implied  in  the  surrender  of  Pactyas. 
Lesbos  also  had  territory  on  the  mainland  worth  preserving. 

\  This  is  a  curious  error  for  Herodotus,  who,  as  we  should  think,  had  lived  long 
enough  in  Italy  to  have  learnt  the  relative  sizes  of  Sicily  and  Sardinia. 


276  THE   MEDO-PERSIAN  EMPIRE.  [Chap.  X. 

far  as  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  and  Tartessus."^  In  that  distant 
region  the  aged  king  had  offered  them  a  refuge  from  the  power  of 
Croesus  ;  and  when  they  declined  his  generous  offer,  he  gave  them 
money  to  repair  their  fortifications,  which  Herodotus  describes  as 
built  with  great  blocks  of  stone  accurately  fitted  to  each  other. 
This  show  of  strength  induced  Ilarpagus  to  offer  them  terms,  in 
which  however  they  saw  no  security  from  enslavement.  They 
asked  a  single  day  for  deliberation  ;  which  Ilarpagus  granted,  if 
we  may  believe  Herodotus,  with  the  generous  intention  that  they 
might  execute  their  plan.  As  soon  as  his  forces  were  withdra^^^l, 
they  launched  their  galleys,  put  on  board  their  wives  and  children, 
their  household  goods,  the  images  of  their  gods,  and  the  votive 
offerings  from  the  temples,  leaving  behind  only  their  paintings  and 
works  in  stone  and  bronze.  Then  they  set  sail  for  Chios.  The 
Persian  army,  returning  the  next  day,  found  themselves  masters 
of  a  deserted  city. 

The  jealousy  of  a  rival  maritime  state  prevented  their  settling 
at  the  islets  near  Chios,  called  (Enussse  ;  and  no  choice  was  left 
but  to  turn  their  prows  to  the  far  west.  The  death  of  Arganthonius 
had  deprived  them  of  the  asylum  he  had  offered  in  Tartessus ;  but 
a  nearer  end  was  promised  to  the  voyage  by  the  colony  of  Alalia, 
which  they  had  founded  twenty  years  before  in  the  island  of 
Cyrnus  (Corsica).  Further  preparation  was  needed  for  such  a 
distant  voyage ;  and  it  would  be  sweet  to  give  their  enemy  a 
parting  blow.  Sailing  back  to  Phocaea,  they  surprised  the  Persian 
garrison,  and  put  them  to  the  sword.  Then,  imprecating  curses 
on  the  man  who  should  draw  back,  they  dropped  a  great  mass  of 
iron  into  the  sea,  and  swore  never  to  return  till  it  appeared  floating 
on  the  surface.  But  they  had  scarcely  put  to  sea,  when  that  long- 
ing for  home  which  the  Greeks  called  nostalgia  (liome-sickness) 
subdued  more  than  half  their  number,  who  sailed  back  to  Phocaea, 
and  submitted  to  the  Phocsean  yoke.  The  remaining  half  reached 
the  haven  of  Alalia,  and,  joining  the  older  colonists,  subsisted  for  five 
years  by  piracy,  which  in  that  age  was  no  disgrace.  Tlie  two  great 
maritime  powers,  the  Carthaginians  and  T^Trhenians,  combined 
to  put  them  down.  In  the  engagement  which  ensued,  the  Phocieans 
gained  a  victory  over  the  120  ships  of  the  enemy  ;  but  of  their 
own  sixty,  only  twenty  came  out  of  the  fight,  and  those  in  a  state 
disabled  for  war.     So  they  returned  to  Alalia,  re-embarked  their 


*  The  most  Important  of  their  colonies  was  Massilia  (Marseilles) ;  the  inhabitants 
of  which  still  boast  of  being  "  compatriots  of  the  Phocreans." 


B.C.  552.]     SUBJECTION   OF  THE  CARIANS  AND   DORIANS.      277 

wives  and  children,  and  set  sail  for  Rhegium,  on  the  Italian  side 
of  the  Straits  of  Messina.  Their  last  removal  was  to  the  western 
coast  of  Italy,  between  the  Gulfs  of  Salerno  and  Policastro, 
where,  on  a  beautiful  bay,  at  the  mouth  of  a  little  river,  they 
founded  the  city  of  Elea  or  Velia.  To  this  new  colony  other 
Ionian  exiles  found  their  way,  and  among  them  the  poet  and 
philosopher  Xenophanes,  of  Colophon,  w^ho  founded  the  school 
of  philosophy  which  was  called,  from  its  birthplace,  the  Eleatic. 
This  episode  was  worth  relating  fully,  for  the  light  it  throws  on 
the  process  of  maritime  adventure  and  colonization  on  the  shores 
of  the  Mediterranean,  and  for  the  glimpse  it  gives  us  of  the  great 
powers  which  had  grown  up  in  the  West  during  the  revolutions 
of  empire  in  the  East. 

Having  completed  the  subjugation  of  Ionia  and  ^olia,  Har- 
pagus  compelled  the  conquered  Greeks  to  serve  in  his  campaigns 
against  the  Lycians,  the  Caunians,  the  Carians,  and  the  Dorian 
colonies  in  the  south-west  of  the  peninsula.  The  easy  submission 
of  the  latter  proves,  as  Mr.  Grote  observes,  that  "  the  want  of 
steadfast  courage,  often  imputed  to  Ionic  Greeks  as  compared  to 
Dorian,  ought  properly  to  be  charged  on  Asiatic  Greeks  as  com- 
pared with  European — or  rather  upon  that  mixture  of  indigenous 
with  Hellenic  population,  which  all  the  Asiatic  colonies,  in  com- 
mon with  most  of  the  other  colonies,  presented,  and  which  in 
Haliearnassus  was  particularly  remarkable  :  for  it  seems  to  have 
been  half  Carian,  half  Dorian,  and  was  even  governed  by  a  line 
of  Carian  despots."  *  These  despots  probably  purchased  the  se- 
curity of  their  rule  by  acknowledging  the  supremacy  of  Persia  ; 
and  we  shall  see  the  Carian  queen  Artemisia  acting  a  conspicuous 
part  in  the  expedition  of  Xerxes  against  Greece.  Cnidus,  the 
other  chief  Dorian  city  of  Caria,  made  a  faint  show  of  resistance 
by  cutting  through  the  neck  of  its  peninsula  ;  but  the  attempt 
was  abandoned  at  the  bidding  of  one  of  those  oracles  which  came 
60  conveniently  to  the  aid  of  the  Persians.f 

Far  different  was  the  conduct  of  the  Lycians.     This  people — 

*  Grote,  History  of  Greece,  vol.  iv.  p.  279.  It  is  remarkable  that  Herodotus  gives 
us  no  details  of  the  subjugation  of  this  his  native  city. 

\  The  wise  desire  to  save  their  countrymen  from  hopeless  resistance  may,  in  some 
cases,  have  been  the  motive  of  a  course  which  in  others  can  only  be  explained  by 
bribery.  It  is  amusing  to  find  that  an  oracle,  when  it  condescends  to  reason,  adopts  the 
anile  argument,  common  in  every  age,  against  enterprise  and  invention — 

"  Fence  not  the  isthmus  off,  nor  dig  it  through — 
Jove  would  have  made  an  island,  had  he  wished. 


278  THE  MEDO-PERSIAN  EMPIRE.  [Chap.  X. 

one  of  the  most  interesting  of  tlie  ancient  world — inhabited  a  wide 
projection  of  the  southern  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  which  is  formed 
by  a  series  of  terraces  descending  from  Mount  Massicytus,  a  great 
southern  spur  of  Taurus.  Lycia  occupies  a  conspicuous  place  in 
the  earliest  Greek  literature.  Homer  makes  the  Lycians  fight  on 
the  side  of  Troy,  under  Glaucus  and  Sarpedon,  heroes  only  second 
to  Hector  and  ^neas  ;  and  among  the  finest  passages  of  the  Iliad 
are  the  colloquy  of  Glaucus  with  Diomed  and  the  death  of  Sar- 
pedon. Bellerophon  is  represented  as  fighting  against  the  war- 
like Solymi,  whom  other  traditions  represent  as  being  the  oldest 
inhabitants  of  the  land.  The  Solymi  were  probably  a  Semitic 
race,  closely  connected  with  the  Phoenicians  ;  their  Lycian  con- 
querors a  people  of  the  Indo-Germanic  stock.  The  Greek  tradition 
brought  them  from  Crete,  when  the  people  of  that  island  were  still 
barbarians,  of  a  race  kindred  to  the  Carians  ;  the  further  specula- 
tions which  connected  them  with  the  Greeks  cannot  be  accepted. 
Their  ancient  monuments  show  the  influence  of  the  neighbouring 
Greek  colonies  in  Caria  ;  but  those,  in  which  the  Grecian  tyi)e  is 
so  decided,  belong  to  a  n)uch  later  period.*  From  their  first  ap- 
pearance in  history,  the  Lycians  furnish  an  example  of  a  firmly 
united  and  well  balanced  federal  constitution,  which  embraced 
their  twenty-three  cities  ;  and  perhaps  they  owed  it  to  this  cause, 
as  much  as  to  the  protection  of  Mount  Taurus,  that  they  and  the 
Cilicians,  alone  of  all  the  people  west  of  the  Halys,  held  out 
against  the  power  of  Crossus.  The  Persians  only  subdued  them 
after  a  resistance  which  was  made  for  ever  memorable  by  the  fate 
of  Xanthus.f  In  a  battle  fought  on  the  plain  south  of  the  city, 
the  fierce  courage  of  the  Xanthians  was  overpowered  by  numbers, 
and  they  were  shut  up  within  their  walls.  Having  collected  into 
the  citadel  their  wives,  children,  slaves,  and  treasures,  they  set  fire 
to  the  building.  Then,  binding  themselves  w^ith  dreadful  oaths, 
they  sallied  forth  again,  and  fell  fighting  to  the  last  man.  In  the 
time  of  Herodotus  only  eighty  families  in  Xanthus  were  allowed 
to  be  of  Lycian  descent,  their  ancestors  having  been  absent  from 
the  country  at  the  time.  Enough  was  left,  however,  of  the  old 
spirit,  to  offer  the  most  desperate  resistance  to  Alexander ;  and 
long  ages  afterwards  they  repeated  the  self-immolation  of  their 

*  The  Lycian  monuments,  which  the  British  Museum  owes  to  the  labours  of  Sir 
Charles  Fellowes,  deserve  special  study.  The  language  of  their  ancient  inscriptions  is 
still  a  matter  of  dispute. 

f  The  native  name  of  the  city  was  Arina.  Xanthus  (yellow)  is  a  Greek  translation 
of  the  name  of  the  turbid  mountain-stream  on  which  it  stood. 


B.C.  538.]  CAPTURE  OF  BABYLON.  279 

forefathers  rather  than  surrender  to  the  Homans  under  Brutus.* 
It  has  been  thought,  on  the  evidence  of  the  Xanthian  obelisk  in  the 
British  Museum,  erected  probably  about  b.c.  465,  that  the  gov- 
ernment of  Lycia  became  hereditary  in  the  family  of  Harpagus. 

As  for  the  rest  of  Asia  Minor,  the  tribes  which  had  owned 
allegiance  to  Croesus  submitted,  or  were  subjected  by  Harpagus 
but  various  wild  races,  such  as  the  Pisidians,  were  never  thor- 
oughly subdued.  The  Cilicians  seem  to  have  preserved  a  real  inde- 
pendence under  their  native  princes,  who  were  afterwards  reduced 
to  acknowledge  the  supremacy  of  Persia,  probably  by  Cambyses. 

The  conquest  of  lesser  Asia  required  several  years ;  and  though 
not  conducted  by  Cyrus  in  person,  it  must  have  claimed  much  of 
his  attention.  Meanwhile  he  had  to  consolidate  his  power  in 
Media  and  its  northern  and  eastern  frontiers.  He  overran  the  great 
plain  east  of  the  Caspian  {Khiva  and  Bokhara),  and  founded  on 
the  river  Jaxartes  {Sihoun),  the  city  which  marked  the  northern 
frontier  of  his  empire.f  To  the  east  of  Media,  his  conquests  are 
said  to  have  extended  over  Herat,  Cabul,  Candaliar,  Seistan,  and 
Beloochistan,  in  short,  the  whole  plateau  of  Iran,  to  the  mountains 
dividing  it  from  the  valley  of  the  Indus.  Thus  we  may  well  ac- 
count for  the  fifteen  or  sixteen  years  which  he  sufi'ered  to  elapse 
before  attacking  Babylon.  Herodotus,  indeed,  expressly  says  that 
Cyrus  reduced  the  rest  of  Upper  Asia  before  he  made  war  upon 
the  Assyrians.:}:  He  alludes  elsewhere  to  the  conquest  of  the 
Bactrians  and  the  Sacje  ;  but  he  avoids  encumbering  his  pages  with 
details  of  any  but  the  two  great  events  of  the  capture  of  Babylon, 
and  the  expedition  against  the  Massagetae,  in  which  Cyrus  lost 
his  life.  The  former  exploit  has  been  related  in  the  preceding 
chapter.  It  was  probably  in  b.c.  539  that  Cyrus  began  his  march 
from  Ecbatana.  The  whole  of  that  summer  was  occupied  in 
diverting  the  water  of  the  Gyndes,  an  eastern  tributary  of  the 
Tigris, — a  rehearsal  of  the  stratagem  by  which  Babylon  was 
taken  in  the  following  year,  b.c.  538. 

The  first  act  of  imperial  power  performed  by  Cyrus,  when  he 
took  up  his  own  residence  at  Babylon,  was  to  issue  liis  decree  for 
the  return  of  the  Jews  to  the  ancient  territory  of  Judah,  and  for 
the  rebuilding  of  the  Temple  of  Jehovah  (b.c.  536).     While 

*  The  story  is  told  by  Plutarch,  in  his  Life  of  Binitus. 

f  Cyreschata,  th&t  19,  Cyruses  furthest.  Just  so  Alexander  built  an  ^/carantfrescAaia 
in  the  same  region. 

X  Herod,  i.  177.  The  context  shows  that  he  means  the  Babylonians,  whom  he 
always  regards  as  Assyrians. 


380  THE  MEDO-PERSIAN  EMPIRE.  [CnAr.  X. 

combating  the  extreme  views  of  certain  writers  as  to  liis  motives, 
we  cannot  believe  that  the  recent  events  at  Babylon,  recorded  in 
the  Book  of  Daniel,  made  a  less  impression  on  his  mind,  than  the 
earliest  displays  of  Divine  power  had  made  on  Nebuchadnezzar. 
The  statement  that  "  Daniel  continued  even  until  the  Urst  year  of 
king  Cyrus  "  *  seems  to  mark  the  continuance  of  the  honour  in 
which  the  prophet  had  been  held  by  Darius,  and  justifies  the 
inference  that  he  advised  and  aided  in  directing  the  restoration. 
The  emphatic  acknowledgement,  in  the  decree  issued  by  Cyrus,  of 
his  appointment  by  "  Jehovah,  the  God  of  Heaven  "  to  perform 
this  work,  is  what  we  might  expect  from  a  prince  who  had  seen,  in 
the  sacred  books  of  the  Jews,  his  very  name  thus  distinguished,  in 
connexion  with  the  prophecy  which  his  capture  of  Babylon  had  so 
literally  fulfilled. f  But  it  does  not  follow  that,  in  thus  honouring 
Jehovah,  he  forswore  the  religion  of  his  fathers,  or  that  he  for- 
sook his  own  line  of  policy.  As  Egypt  had  joined  with  Babylon 
and  Lydia  in  the  league  against  him,  we  are  quite  ])repared  to  be- 
lieve the  statement  of  Herodotus,  that  Egypt,  as  well  as  Babylon, 
was  comprehended  in  the  conquests  he  was  meditating  when  he 
returned  from  Sardis.:}:  In  all  previous  wars  between  Egypt  and 
the  great  empires  of  Western  Asia, — as  afterwards  in  the  contests 
between  the  Ptolemies  and  the  Seleucids — Palestine  was  a  frontier 
post  of  extreme  importance  to  either  party.  It  was  sound  policy 
to  maintain  there  a  nation,  who  would  cling  to  it  as  their  own 
sacred  land, — a  policy  always  followed  by  Egypt,  and  only  aban- 
doned by  Nebuchadnezzar  under  the  provocation  of  reiterated 
rebellion.  Let  his  policy,  however,  have  been  what  it  might, 
Cyrus  carried  it  out  with  noble  generosity.  He  invited  the  wor- 
shippers of  Jehovah  from  the  most  distant  provinces  of  the  empire, 
charging  their  neighbours  to  provide  them  with  money,  goods,  and 
beasts  for  the  journey,  besides  free-will  offerings  for  the  House  of 
God ;  and  collected  from  the  Babylonian  temples  all  the  sacred 
vessels  which  had  been  carried  away  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  and 
gave  them  to  the  care  of  the  prince  of  Judah.  AVhile  thus 
honoured  to  fulfil  the  Divine  decrees,  Cyrus  strengthened  his 
empire  by  a  policy  which  proved  perfectly  successful.  For  the 
space  of  more  than  two  centuries,  to  the  overthrow  of  the  empire 
by  Alexander,  Persia  had  no  more  obedient  province  than  Jud£ea, 
and  her  kings  no  more  loyal  subjects  than  the  Jews,  both  those 

*  Daniel  i.  21. 

f  Ezra  i.  1 — i  ;  Isaiah  xliv.  28 ;  xlv.  1 — 13. 

X  Herod,  i.  153. 


B.C.  536.]  HISTORY   OF   THE  RESTORED  JEWS.  281 

who  remained  in  the  East  and  those  who  returned  to  their  own 
land. 

In  both  scenes  their  loyalty  was  preserved  nnder  considerable 
provocation,  and  their  political  conduct  may  be  adduced  as  one 
sign  of  the  better  spirit  which  the  Jews  showed  after  the  return 
from  the  captivity.  For  there  is  no  more  conspicuous  proof,  in 
the  providential  government  of  the  world,  that  men  may  be 
taught  to  fear  God  by  finding  Him  faithful  to  His  threats  and  yet 
merciful  in  their  infliction,  than  in  the  altered  temper  of  the  re- 
stored people.  If  they  brought  back  with  them  the  germs  of  faults 
which  were  afterwards  to  require  a  more  terrible  chastisement, 
they  were  at  least  cured  of  the  idolatry  and  obstinate  rebellion 
which  had  called  down  the  first.  Guided  by  Zerubbabel,  and 
encouraged  by  the  prophets  Ilaggai  and  Zechariah,  they  bore  the 
opposition  which  sj^rung  from  the  jealousy  of  the  half-heathen 
Samaritans  and  the  calumnious  accusations  transmitted  to  court 
by  the  Persian  satraps,  till  they  gained  the  favour  of  the  king,  and 
were  permitted  to  complete  their  works  in  peace.  The  details  are 
so  exclusively  concerned  with  the  religious  history  of  the  people, 
and  so  mixed  up  with  such  intricate  questions  respecting  the  kings 
named  in  the  Books  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  that  their  discussion 
must  be  left  to  the  separate  province  of  Scripture  History.  It  is 
enough  here  to  give  the  general  results.  The  Temple  was  finished 
and  dedicated  in  the  sixth  year  of  Darius  Hystaspis  (b.c.  515). 
His  successor  Xerxes  (b.c.  485 — 465),  there  can  now  be  little 
doubt,  is  the  Ahasuerus  of  the  Book  of  Esther,  a  document  which 
gives  us  a  most  interesting  view,  both  of  the  interior  of  the 
Persian  court,  and  of  the  condition  of  the  Jews  throughout  the 
empire.  The  influence  of  the  Jewish  queen,  the  proved  loyalty  of 
their  most  distinguished  men,  such  as  Mordecai,  and  the  display 
of  strength,  when,  in  defending  themselves  against  a  general 
massacre,  they  slew  75,000  of  their  enemies,  must  have  greatly 
improved  their  general  position.  Under  Artaxerxes  I.  Longi- 
manus,  they  were  vastly  strengthened  by  the  mission  of  Ezra 
and  the  new  body  of  returned  exiles  who  accompanied  him  (b.c. 
458),  and  again  by  the  commission  granted  to  Nehemiah  (b.c. 
445).  In  spite  of  renewed  opposition  from  the  Samaritans,  and  cor- 
ruptions which  had  grown  up  within  the  new  state,  the  work  of 
restoration  was  completed,  the  walls  were  rebuilt,  the  law  was 
once  more  taught  by  the  Levites,  the  ordinances  of  religion  estab- 
lished anew,  and  an  orderly  division  was  made  of  the  people 
between  Jerusalem  and  the  country  districts.     In  a  second  visit 


283  THE  MEDO-PERSIAN  EMPIRE:  [Chap.  X. 

(about  B.C.  433)  Neliemiah  reformed  the  internal  abuses  which 
had  grown  up,  chiefly  from  the  spirit  of  selfish  gain,  and  the 
nation  prospered  under  the  rule  of  their  High  Priests  till  the  end 
of  the  Persian  empire  (e.g.  323). 

The  end  of  Cjrus,  as  related  by  Herodotus,  fonns  a  mournful 
contrast  to  the  greatness  of  his  reign.  He  fell  in  an  expedition 
against  the  Massagetse,  a  Scythian  people  in  the  great  plain 
east  of  the  Caspian.  The  story  is  again  embellished  by  romantic 
details — the  over-weening  confidence  of  Cyrus  in  his  good  fortune 
— the  challenge  of  the  warrior  queen  Tomyris  to  choose  his  own 
ground  to  fight  on — the  dream  of  Cyrus,  foreshowing  the  elevation 
of  Darius  the  son  of  Hystaspis — the  details  of  the  two  battles — 
and  the  savage  insults  of  Queen  Tomyris  upon  the  corpse  of  Cyras, 
whose  head  she  dipped  into  a  skinful  of  human  gore,  to  "  give 
him  his  fill  of  blood."  Another  story,  preserved  by  Ctesias,  made 
him  fall  in  an  expedition  against  the  Derbices,  a  Caucasian  people. 
There  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  he  really  fell  in  battle  against 
some  tribe  of  central  Asia  ;  but  it  seems  also  certain  that  he  was 
buried  at  Pasargadse,  his  Persian  capital.  There  the  followers  of 
Alexander  (as  Arrian  relates)  not  only  saw  the  tomb,  bearing  the 
inscription,  "  I  am  Cyrus,  the  son  of  Cambyses,  who  founded  the 
empire  of  the  Persians  and  ruled  over  Asia  :  grudge  me  not  then 
this  monument ; "  but  Aristobulus  gathered  together,  and  interred 
again,  the  scattered  bones.  A  tomb  is  still  to  be  seen  at  Mxirghaub 
answering  to  Arrian's  description.  A  square  base,  composed  of 
immense  blocks  of  a  beautiful  white  marble,  rises  by  seven  steps, 
and  supports  a  quadrangular  cell,  surmounted  by  a  roof  with 
gables,  like  the  pediments  of  a  Greek  temple.  This  is  also  built 
of  huge  blocks  of  marble,  those  of  the  roof  being  cut  to  the  re- 
quired slope.  Tlic  walls  are  five  feet  thick,  and  the  interior  is 
ten  feet  long,  seven  feet  wide,  and  eight  feet  high.  The  marble 
floor  is  pierced  with  holes,  which  are  supposed  to  have  held  the 
fastenings  of  the  golden  sarcophagus.  The  tomb  stands  in  an  area 
surrounded  by  pillars,  which  are  inscribed  both  in  the  Persian 
and  the  so-called  Median  (or  Scythian)  dialects,  "  I  am  Cyrus  the 
king,  the  Achsemenian."  *  The  reign  of  Cyrus  lasted  nine-and- 
twenty  years  :  his  death  forms  one  of  the  best  ascertained  epochs 
in  chronology,  e.g.  529. 

Mr.  Grote  gives  the  following  admirable  summary  of  the  reign 
and  conquests  of  the  Great  Cyrus : — "  In  what  we  read  respecting 

*  An  engraving  of  the  tomb  is  given  with  the  description  in  Sir  R.  K.  Porter's 
Travels,  vol.  i.  pp.  498 — 506,  and  in  Rawlinson's  Herodotus,  vol.  i.  p.  351. 


B.C.  529.]  SUMMARY   OF   THE  KEIGN   OF   CYRUS.  283 

liim,  there  seems,  though  amidst  constant  fighting,  very  little 
cruelty.  His  extraordinary  activity  and  conquests  admit  of  no 
doubt.  He  left  the  Persian  Empire  extending  from  Sogdiana  and 
the  rivers  Jaxartes  and  Indus  eastward,  and  to  the  Hellespont  and 
the  Syrian  coast  westward  ;  and  his  successors  made  no  permanent 
addition  to  it,  except  that  of  Egypt.  ...  It  was  from  Cyras,  that 
the  habits  of  the  Persian  kings  took  commencement,  to  dwell  at 
Susa  in  the  winter  and  Ecbatana  during  the  summer  ;  the  primitive 
territory  of  Persis,  with  its  two  towns  of  Persepolis  and  Pasargadae, 
being  reserved  for  the  burial-place  of  the  kings  and  the  religious 
sanctuary  of  the  empire.     How  or  when  the  conquest  of  Susiana 

was  made,  we  are  not  informed The  river  Choaspes,  near 

Susa,  was  supposed  to  furnish  the  only  water  fit  for  the  palate  of 
the  Great  King,  and  it  is  said  to  have  been  carried  about  with  him 
wherever  he  went."  *  This  great  historian  then  proceeds  to  show 
the  vast  change  which  these  conquests  effected  on  the  Persian 
nation  itself,  holding  out  to  their  nobles  satrapies  as  lucrative  and 
powerful  as  kingdoms,  and  to  the  soldiers  plunder  and  licence 
without  limit ;  and,  while  tempting  them  with  all  the  luxuries  of 
the  conquered  countries,  for  which  they  soon  abandoned  their  old 
simplicity,  opening  the  prospect  of  a  career  of  unbounded  conquest, 
into  which  the  successors  of  Cyrus  at  once  plunged.  The  result 
was  to  roll  back  the  tide  of  conquest  upon  an  empire  enfeebled 
by  luxury,  divided  by  the  jealousies  and  contests  of  provincial 
rulers,  and  with  a  central  power  too  weak  to  prevent  its  falling  to 
pieces.  In  tracing  the  progress  of  this  declension,  let  it  be  remem- 
bered that  we  are  dealing  with  the  case,  not  simply  of  a  wide- 
spread empire,  but  of  an  empire  in  which  the  central  power  was 
despotic.  How  far  an  almost  unbounded  dominion  may  be  ren- 
dered safe  by  free  institutions  is  a  great  question  of  our  own  days. 
The  "  Nemesis"  of  unbridled  power — to  borrow  the  impressive 
view  of  the  Greeks — already  begins  to  work  in  the  personal  cha- 
racter of  Camijyses,  the  son  and  successor  of  Cyrus.  His  wanton 
cruelties  and  insane  rashness  have  often  been  compared  with 
those  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  Caligula,  and  Paul  of  Russia,  aa 
proofs  that  if  "  oppression  drives  wise  men  mad,"  it  makes  the 
tyrant  himself  madder.  The  great  event  of  his  reign  was  the 
expedition  against  Egypt,  which  is  usually  placed  in  his  fifth  year 
(b.c.  525).f    Herodotus  passes  over  the  interval ;  but  elsewhere  he 

*  Grote,  History  of  Greece,  vol.  iv.  pp.  288,  289. 

f  This  is  on  the  authority  of  Manetho,  in  the  Armenian  version  of  the  Chronicon 


384  THE  MEDO-PERSIAN  EMPIRE.  [Chap.  X 

gives  us  reason  to  believe  that  Plicenicia  was  conquered  by  Cam- 
byses.  He  puts  into  the  inoutli  of  the  Persian  courtier  the  flattery, — 
which  could  hardly  have  been  ventured  on  without  some  foundation 
of  truth, — that  Cambj^ses  surpassed  his  father,  for  he  was  lord  of 
all  that  his  father  ever  ruled,  and  further  had  made  himself  master 
of  Egypt,  and  the  sea.^  Accordingly  Cambyses  is  the  first  Persian 
king  whom  we  find  in  possession  of  the  great  instrument  of 
maritime  power,  the  navy  of  the  Phoenicians  ;  but  their  connexion 
with  Persia  was  little  more  than  a  voluntary  alliance  ;  and  Cam- 
byses was  obliged  to  humour  them  because  "  upon  the  Phoenicians 
ail  his  sea-sei*vice  depended."f  The  affairs  involved  in  the  transfer 
of  so  vast  and  recent  an  empire,  even  from  father  to  son,  with  the 
collection  of  all  its  forces  for  the  meditated  expedition,  may  easily 
have  required  five  years.  Herodotus  expressly  tells  us,  twice  over, 
that  the  forces  led  by  Cambyses  against  Egypt  comprised  the 
recently  subjugated  Ionian  and  ^olian  Greeks,  as  well  as  the 
hereditary  vassals  of  the  Medo-Persian  Empire.:}:  The  expedition 
was  undertaken,  as  we  have  already  seen,  at  the  close  of  the  long 
reign  of  Amasis,  who,  however,  died  before  the  actual  commence- 
ment of  the  war.§ 

N^otwithstanding  the  provocation  he  had  given  by  joining  the 
league  of  Croesus,  Amasis  seems  to  have  been  on  friendly  terms 
with  Cyrus ;  but  Cambyses  easily  found  a  new  ground  of  quarrel. 
It  is  not  worth  while  to  repeat  the  doubtful  stories  which  Hero- 
dotus tells  upon  this  point.  Phanes,  a  mercenary  from  Halicar- 
nassus,  undertook  to  guide  the  Persian  army  across  the  desert 
which  divides  Philistia  from  the  Lake  Serbonis  and  Mount  Casius 
on  the  Egyptian  frontier ;  and,  by  the  same  man's  advice,  a  safe- 
conduct  was  obtained  from  the  Arabian  chief  of  that  region. || 

of  Eusebius,  and  of  Diodorus  (i.  68).  Syncellus,  however,  reports  Manetho  as  placing 
the  invasion  two  years  earlier,  B.C.  527. 

*  Herod,  iii.  34. 

\  Herod,  iii.  19.  Herodotus  tells  us,  that  it  was  only  the  refusal  of  the  Phoenicians 
to  sail  against  their  own  children  and  allies  under  a  treaty,  that  hindered  the  conquest 
of  Carthage  by  Cambyses  ;  and  that  the  king  accepted  their  excuse  because  they  had 
yielded  themselves  to  the  Persians.  He  then  speaks  of  the  similar  submission  of  the 
Cyprians  in  a  way  which  implies  its  having  been  voluntary  in  both  cases. 

X  Herod,  ii.  1 ;  iii.  1. 

§  See  chapter  vii.  p.  138. 

I  Modern  travellers  confirm  the  statement  of  Herodotus  as  to  the  good  faith  of 
the  Arabs  to  such  engagements.  Speaking  of  the  region  crossed  by  Cambyses,  Mr. 
Kinglake  says,  "It  is  not  of  the  Bedouins  that  travellers  are  afraid,  for  the  safe- 
conduct  granted  by  the  chief  of  the  ruling  tribe  is  never,  I  believe,  violated."— 
Eothen,  p.  191. 


B.C.  525.]  CONQUEST   OF  EGYPT.  285 

Cambyses  found  the  new  king  of  Egypt,  Psammenitus,  the  sou 
of  Amasis,  encamped  near  the  Pelusiac  mouth  of  the  Nile.  A 
horrid  pledge  was  given  of  the  fierceness  of  the  coming  conflict, 
especially  between  the  mercenaries  in  either  army.  The  Greek 
and  Carian  soldiers  of  Psammenitus,  enraged  at  the  treachery  of 
Phanes,  took  his  sons,  whom  he  had  left  in  Egypt,  brought  them 
forth  in  sight  of  both  armies,  and  slaying  them  in  their  father's 
sight,  caught  their  life-blood  in  a  bowl,  and  drank  it  mingled  with 
wine  and  water.  Then,  pledging  themselves  to  one  another  with 
an  oath,  they  rushed  into  the  battle.  After  a  stubborn  fight  and 
great  slaughter  on  both  sides,  the  Egyptians  fled.*  The  defeated 
army  sought  for  shelter  within  the  walls  of  Memphis.  Cambyses 
sent  a  herald  up  the  Xile  to  summon  them  to  surrender,  but  they 
destroyed  the  ship  and  tore  the  crew  limb  from  limb.  The  siege 
was  formed,  and  the  city  only  ofl'ered  a  brief  resistance.  Upon 
its  capture,  the  Libyans  submitted  to  Cambyses ;  and  the  Greek 
cities  of  Barca  and  Cyrene  sent  him  presents,  which  he  con- 
temptuously rejected  for  their  meanness. 

The  outrage  on  the  herald  might  have  excused  retaliation  in 
the  first  flush  of  victory  ;  but,  instead  of  this,  Cambyses  amused 
himself  by  wanton  cold-blooded  cruelty  to  Psammenitus  ten 
days  after  the  city  had  surrendered.  Setting  him  in  a  suburb 
of  the  city,  with  a  mockery  of  royal  state,  he  caused  a  procession 
of  prisoners  to  pass  before  him.  First  came  his  daughter,  in  the 
garb  of  a  slave,  with  the  daughters  of  the  chief  Egyptian  nobles  ; 
next  his  son,  and  two  thousand  of  the  noble  youths  with  ropes 
round  their  necks  and  bridles  in  their  months,  doomed  to  death 
for  the  murder  of  the  herald's  crew.  Psammenitus  sat  un- 
moved, while  the  Egyptians  about  him  cried  aloud  at  the 
fate  of  their  sons  and  daughters  ;  but  when  one  of  his  former 
boon  companions,  who  had  been  plundered  of  his  all,  came 
up  and  begged  alms  of  the  soldiers,  the  king  burst  into  tears. 
Being  required  by  Cambyses  to  explain  conduct  so  strange, 
Psammenitus  answered,  that  his  own  misfortunes  were  too  great 
for  tears,  but  he  could  weep  over  a  friend  fallen  into  beggary  on 

*  Herodotus,  who  visited  the  field  of  battle,  makes  a  curious  observation  on  the 
Persian  and  Egyptian  skulls,  which  he  saw  piled  in  two  separate  heaps.  The  former 
were  so  thin  that  a  slight  blow  with  a  pebble  would  break  a  hole  in  them,  the  latter 
80  strong  that  you  could  hardly  crack  them  with  a  stone. — Herod,  iii.  12.  Sir  J.  G. 
Wilkinson  adds:  "The  thickness  of  the  Egyptian  skull  is  observable  in  the  mummies; 
and  those  of  the  modern  Egyptians  fortunately  possess  the  same  property  of  hardness, 
to  judge  from  the  blows  they  bear  from  the  Turks,  and  in  their  combats  among  them- 
selves." 


386  THE  MEDO-PERSIAN  EMPIRE.  [Chap.  X 

tlie  tlireshold  of  old  age.  The  answer  moved  to  tears  not  only  the 
Persian  nobles  and  Croesus,  but  even  Cambyses  himself,  who  issued 
orders  to  spare  the  son  of  Psammenitns  ;  but  it  was  too  late. 
Psammenitus  himself  was  treated  by  Cambyses  with  the  honour 
which,  as  we  have  seen  in  more  than  one  example,  the  Persians 
were  wont  to  show  to  dethroned  kings  ;*  but  being  detected  in 
new  conspiracies,  he  was  compelled  to  drink  poison.  Cambyses 
now  gave  full  vent  to  the  wanton  spirit,  indicated  by  the  public 
insults  to  the  fallen  king.  Entering  the  palace  of  Amasis,  he 
had  his  corpse  brought  forth  from  the  chamber  where  it  lay 
awaiting  final  interment,  and  began  to  scourge  it  and  insult  it 
in  every  way.  Finding  that  the  attendants  were  wasting  their 
blows  on  the  wrappings  of  the  mummy,  he  ordered  them  to 
burn  it ; — a  command,  observes  Herodotus,  as  insulting  to  the 
Persians,  who  regarded  fire  as  a  god,  as  it  was  to  the  Egyjjtians. 

Cambyses  now  planned  three  great  expeditions  for  the  conquest 
of  all  Africa  ;  — the  first  against  the  Carthaginians  ;  the  second 
against  the  inhabitants  of  the  Oasis  of  Amnion  {Siwah) ;  and  the 
third  against  some  tribe  whom  Herodotus  calls  "  the  long-lived 
Ethiopians,"  and  whom  he  believed  to  live  upon  the  southern 
ocean.  How  the  first  expedition  was  frustrated  by  the  refusal  of 
the  Phoenicians,  has  been  already  stated  ;  the  last  was  prepared 
for  by  sending  spies,  whose  reports  (real  or  feigned)  furnished 
curious  details,  which  may  be  read  in  Herodotus,  and  who  brought 
back  a  challenge  which  so  excited  the  fury  of  Cambyses,  that  he 
undertook  the  expedition  in  person.  He  was  compelled,  however, 
to  relinquish  it,  after  the  entire  failure  of  provisions  had  driven 
his  soldiers  to  the  extremity  of  casting  lots  for  every  tenth  man 
to  be  eaten  by  his  comrades. 

Meanwhile  an  army  of  50,000  men  was  despatched  to  the  Oasis 
of  Ammon,  with  instructions  to  enslave  the  inhabitants,  and  to  burn 
the  temple  of  the  god.  They  set  out  from  Thebes,  and  were  known 
to  have  reached  the  "  Great  Oasis"  about  seven  days'  journey  to 
the  west,  and  to  have  started  thence  on  their  forward  march  across 
the  Libyan  Desert ;  but  they  were  never  heard  of  more.  They 
met  a  fate,  as  was  believed,  worthy  of  their  sacrilegious  mission. 
It  was  afterwards  said  by  the  Ammonians,  that  the  Persians  had 
advanced  half-way  across  the  desert,  when,  as  they  were  seated  at 
their  noon-day  meal,  a  violent  south-wind  bore  down  upon  them 
vast  columns  of  whirling  sand,  under  which  they  were  completely 

*  Herodotus  gives  his  express  testimony  to  this  usage  (iii.  15). 


B.C.  524.]  SLAUGHTER  OF   THE  APIS.  .  287 

buried.  It  is  more  probable  that  tliey  were  suffocated  by  the 
Simoom,  or  lost  their  way  and  perished  by  thirst ;  for  the  sand- 
storms of  the  desert,  however  annoying,  are  seldom  dangerous. 

Cambyses  had  returned  to  Memphis,  stung  by  these  twofold 
disappointments,  when  he  found  the  whole  city  rejoicing  at  the 
discovery  of  a  calf  marked  with  the  signs  which  declared  it  to  be 
the  divine  bull  Apis.  Conceiving  the  public  joy  to  be  over  his 
own  defeat,  he  demanded  an  explanation  of  the  magistrates  ;  and, 
on  their  relating  to  him  the  discovery  of  Apis,  he  condemned 
them  to  death  as  liars.  Next  he  summoned  the  priests,  and 
commanded  them  to  bring  Apis  before  him,  for  "  he  would  soon 
know  whether  a  tame  god  had  really  come  to  dwell  in  Egypt." 
Then,  drawing  his  dagger,  he  stabbed  the  calf  in  the  thigh,  and, 
as  the  blood'^.flowed,  he  mocked  this  god  of  flesh  and  blood  and 
sensible  to  steel,  ordered  the  priests  to  be  scourged,  and  denounced 
the  penalty  of  death  on  any  Egyptian  who  should  observe  the 
festival.  The  Apis  died  of  his  wound,  and  was  secretly  buried  by 
the  priests. 

The  Egyptians  regarded  all  the  subsequent  excesses  of  Cambyses 
as  proofs  of  a  judicial  visitation  of  madness  for  this  act  of  sacrilege. 
After  making  all  allowance  for  the  source  from  which  Herodotus 
received  his  information,  we  can  hardly  doubt  that  he  performed 
many  deeds  of  wild  caprice,  inconsistent  with  the  exercise  of 
rational  self-control.  The  most  cruel  of  these  was  his  shooting  an 
arrow  into  the  heart  of  the  son  of  a  favourite  courtier,  Prexaspes, 
who  had  ventured  to  tell  him,  at  his  own  request,  that  his  subjects 
said  he  was  addicted  to  wine  ;  and,  when  he  had  given  this  proof 
of  sobriety,  requiring  the  father  to  compliment  him  on  the  steadi- 
ness of  his  aim.  The  most  fatal  was  the  murder  of  his  brother 
Smerdis,*  at  Susa,  by  the  ministry  of  the  same  Prexaspes,  in 
consequence  of  a  dream,  which  appeared  to  threaten  his  accession 
to  the  throne.     This  crime  soon  brought  its  own  punishment. 

There  was  a  certain  Magian,  who  bore  a  resemblance  to  the 
murdered  prince.  Herodotus  adds  that  he  was  also  called  Smerdis, 
but  we  learn  from  the  Behistun  inscription  that  his  true  name  was 
Gomates  {Gaumata).  With  the  help,  according  to  Herodotus,  of 
his  brother,f  whom  Cambyses  had  left  in  Persia  as  governor  of 
his  household,  the  Magian  assumed  the  throne,  and  proclaimed  liim- 

*  The  true  name  was  Bardis  (Bardiya),  the  S  being  a  prefix . — Behistun  Inscription, 
col.  i.  par.  10.  The  inscription  seems  to  place  the  murder  before  the  departure  of  Cam- 
byses for  Egypt.     If  so,  it  was  probably  a  precaution  against  revolt. 

f  The  inscription  does  not  mention  this  brother. 


888  THE  MEDO-PERSIAN  EMPIRE.  [Chap.  X. 

self  througliout  the  empire  as  Smerdis  the  son  of  Cyrus,  tlieir  king 
in  pLace  of  Cambyses.  Tlie  death  of  the  trae  Smerdis  had  been 
carefully  concealed,  and  the  people  seem  almost  universally  to 
have  transferred  tlieir  allegiance  to  the  usurper,  who  took  precau- 
tions to  avoid  discovery.*  Historians  generally  ascribe  this  to  the 
long  absence  of  Cambyses  in  Egypt,  combined  with  disgust  at  his 
tyranny  ;  but  the  language  of  Darius,  confirmed  by  all  Ave  know 
of  the  attendant  circumstances,  points  to  a  religious  revolution,  in 
which  the  supreme  power  was  seized  by  the  Magians  :— "  When 
Cambyses  had  proceeded  to  Egypt,  then  the  state  became  wicked  ; 
then  the  lie  became  abounding  in  the  land,  both  in  Persia,  and  iu 
Media,  and  in  the  other  provinces."  These  words  dispose  of  the 
speculation  of  some  modern  historians,  that  the  revolt  was  one 
chiefly  of  the  Med es  against  the  Persians.  There  can  be  little 
doubt,  as  we  have  said  above,  that  the  Median  element  would  pre- 
dominate, because  Magianism  w^as  chiefly  prevalent  among  the 
Medes  ;  but  the  rebellion  was  essentially  Magian,  and  we  have  the 
distinct  testimony  of  the  inscription,  both  that  Gomates  was  him- 
self a  Persian,  and  that  the  whole  empire  went  over  to  him  from 
Cambyses,  "  both  Persia  and  Media,  and  the  other  provinces." 
In  describing  his  restoration  of  the  order  of  the  state,  after  he  had 
put  down  Gomates,  Darius  tells  us  that  he  rebuilt  the  temples 
which  Gomates  the  Magian  had  destroyed,  and  that  he  restored 
to  the  people  the  sacred  oflices  of  the  state,  the  religious  chaunts 
and  worship  of  which  Gomates  the  Magian  had  deprived  them. 
So  much  for  the  character  and  success  of  the  revolution. 

Of  the  heralds  sent  through  all  the  empire  to  proclaim  the 
usurper,  one  dared,  according  to  Herodotus,  to  discharge  his  office 
in  the  camp  of  Cambyses,  at  Ecbatana  in  Syria.f  The  king  at  first 
vented  his  anger  on  Prexaspes,  as  if  he  had  only  pretended  to  kill 
Smerdis ;  but  assured  that  Prexaspes  had  slain  and  buried  the  prince 
with  his  own  hand,  and  learning  from  the  herald  that  he  had 
even  seen  him,  Cambyses  perceived  the  truth.  He  was  mounting 
his  horse  in  haste,  to  lead  his  army  to  Susa  against  the  usurper,  when 
the  button  of  his  scabbard  fell  off",  and  the  point  of  his  sword  pierced 
his  thigh  at  the  very  spot,  as  the  Egyptians  observed,  where  he 

*  Herodotus  says  that  he  shut  himself  up  in  a  castle  ;  the  inscription  declares  that 
he  put  to  death  many  who  had  known  Bardis,  lest  they  should  recognize  him. 

\  If  there  be  any  truth  in  the  story,  Cambyses  was  probably  already  on  his  march 
homewards.  No  satisfactory  explanation  has  been  given  of  this  Syrian  Ecbatana ;  the 
name  was  perhaps  invented  to  suit  the  story. 


B.C.  522.]  DEATH   OF   CAMBYSES.  289 

had  stabbed  the  Apis.  FeeUng  himself  mortally  wounded,  Cam- 
byses  asked  the  name  of  the  place  where  he  was,  and  being  answered 
"  Ecbatana,"  he  remembered  an  oracle,  which  he  had  understood 
to  mean  that  he  should  die  at  his  full  time  in  his  palace  at 
Ecbatana,  and  he  exclaimed,  "  Here  then  Cambyses,  son  of  Cyrus, 
is  doomed  to  die."  "'^  Calling  the  chiefs  of  the  Persians  round  him, 
he  confessed  the  murder  of  his  brother,  and  exposed  the  imposture 
of  the  usurper;  he  exhorted  them  all,  and  especially  the  Achse- 
menids,  to  meet  force  by  force,  and  fraud  by  fraud,  so  as  to  prevent 
the  return  of  the  kingdom  to  the  Medes,  f  invoking  every  blessing 
on  the  loyal,  and  praying  that  those  who  failed  in  this  duty  might 
perish  by  such  a  fate  as  his.  He  died  childless,  after  a  reign  of 
seven  years  and  five  months,  b.c.  522. 

Such  is  the  account  which  Herodotus  probably  learned  from 
Egyptian  sources.  The  inscription  simply  says  that,  upon  the 
seizure  of  the  empire  by  Gomates,  Cambyses  died  "  unable  to 
endure ; "  but  another  version  of  these  words,  if  correct — "  self- 
wishing  to  die  " — would  seem  to  imply  suicide.  Herodotus  adds 
that  the  Persian  chiefs  imputed  the  dying  words  of  Cambyses  to 
hatred  of  his  brother,  and  were  only  the  more  convinced  of  the  claims 
of  the  so-called  Smerdis ;  and  thus  the  Magian  reigned  secure.  So 
far  he  is  confirmed  by  the  inscription,  in  which  Darius  boasts  that 
no  one,  either  Persian  or  Median,  dared  to  say  a  word  against  the 
usurper  till  he  arrived :  the  description  which  follows  of  the 
tyranny  of  the  Magian  agrees  with  the  hatred  which  Herodotus 
says  that  the  Persians  bore  to  his  memory ;  and  the  statement  of 
the  historian,  that  he  won  the  affections  of  the  other  Asiatics  by 
exempting  them  from  military  service  and  taxes  for  three  years,  is 
quite  consistent  with  his  harshness  to  the  Persians. 

Long  before  that  term  expired,  his  reign  and  life  came  to  an 
end,  by  a  conspiracy  of  the  chiefs  of  the  Achsemenids.  Whether 
the  curious  stories  of  Herodotus  respecting  the  detection  of  the 
false  Smerdis  and  the  stratagem  by  which  the  crown  was  obtained 

*  Most  commentators  have  noticed  the  parallel  in  Shakspere's  scene  of  the  death 
of  Henry  IV.  in  the  Jerusalem  Chamber  at  Westminster : — 

"It  hath  been  prophesied  to  me  many  years, 
I  should  not  die,  but  in  Jerusalem, 
Which  vainly  I  supposed  the  Holy  Land  : — 
But  bear  me  to  that  chamber  :  there  I'll  lie  : 
In  that  Jerusalem  shall  Harry  die." 
f  This  is  the  phrase  of  Herodotus,  giving  certainly  some  support  to  the  national 
view  of  the  rebellion,  though  proving  that  he  had  an  imperfect  idea  of  its  character. 
At  all  events,  it  was  a  rebellion  against  the  Achaemenids,  if  not  against  the  Persians 
in  general :  and  as  such  the  Achsemenids  revenged  it. 
VOL.  I. — 19 


290  THE  MEDO-PERSIAN  EMPIRE.  [Chap.  X. 

by  Darius,  the  son  of  Iljstaspes,  be  true  or  not  (and  tliere  is  no 
sufficient  reason  to  reject  tliem  altogether),  his  narrative  is  in  sub- 
stantial agreement  with  the  inscription  of  Darius  himself.  The 
six  conspirators  in  Herodotus,  besides  Darius,  who  makes  the 
seventh,  correspond,  with  only  one  exception,  to  the  men  whom 
Darius  names  as  with  him  when  he  slew  the  Magian,  and  who 
"alone  laboured  in  his  service."  Otanes  is  the  Uiana  of  the 
inscription;  Intaphernes,  YidajpJirana ;  Gobryas,  Gauharuva^ 
Hydarnes,  Yidarna  ;  'M.eg2i\)jz\\?>,Bagdbiil'S(la*  Herodotus  repre- 
sents Otanes  as  the  deviser  of  the  conspiracy,  and  Darius  as  only 
arriving  at  the  last  moment  at  Susa,  from  Persia,  of  which  his 
father  Hystaspes  was  the  governor,  whilst  Darius  takes  the  main 
credit  of  the  exploit  to  himself.  But  if  we  look  a  little  closer,  we 
find  Darius  saying,  "JsTo  one  dared  to  say  anything  concerning 
Gomates  the  Magian,  iintil  I  arrived.  .  .  .  Then  it  was,  with  my 
faithful  men,  I  slew  that  Gomates  the  Magian."  And,  in  Hero- 
dotus, it  is  Darius  who,  from  the  moment  of  his  arrival,  urges 
immediate  action,  while  Otanes  counsels  delay,  l^ay  more :  as 
Darius  was  closely  related  to  the  royal  family,  perhaps  the  next 
heir  to  the  throne,  it  is  not  improbable  that  Otanes  may  have 
begun  the  conspiracy  in  his  interest,  which  it  required  his  presence 
to  bring  to  a  head.  It  is  also  worthy  of  notice,  that  Herodotus 
represents  Darius  as  aware  of  the  imposture  of  the  false  Smerdis, 
and  as  supposing  that  the  knowledge  was  confined  to  himself.  A 
further  indication  of  his  importance  is  given  by  his  confidence  that 
the  guards  would  at  once  allow  him  to  pass,  with  his  comrades,  as 
the  bearer  of  a  message  from  his  father,  the  satrap  of  Persia. 
And  when,  by  this  stratagem,  the  cons^Dirators  had  obtained 
admission  to  the  palace,  it  was  the  dagger  of  Darius  that  gave 
the  Magian  his  death-stroke.  It  is  implied  throughout  that  the 
whole  aff'air  was  begun  and  ended  at  Susa ;  but  the  inscription 
tells  us  that  the  Magian  was  slain  at  a  fort  called  Sictachotes,  in 
the  district  of  Nisaea,  in  Media.     His  reign  had   lasted   seven 

*  In  the  last  name  we  have  the  same  interchange  of  h  and  m.  as  in  Bardes  and  (S) 
Merdis.  Fidarna  becomes  Hydarnes,  just  as  Fishtasp  becomes  ^^staspes.  As  for 
/n<aphernes  from  T'^rfaphrana,  Herodotus  probably  wrote  I'7«<apherncs  (for  the  Greek 
Vau  was  not  lost  in  his  time),  and  the  nasal  intonation  of  the  dentals  is  very  common. 
The  whole  is  a  strong  incidental  proof  of  the  value  of  some,  at  least,  of  the  authorities 
followed  by  Herodotus;  and  the  solitary  discrepancy  between  the  Aspathines  of  his 
list  and  the  Ardumanish  of  the  inscription  may  well  be  excused  when  we  learn,  from 
the  inscription  of  Naksh-i-Rustam,  that  the  quiver-bearer  of  Darius  was  named  As- 
pachana.  Ctesias  gives  only  one  name  right  (Hydarnes)  besides  that  of  Darius 
himself. 


B.C.  521.]  ACCESSION  OF  DARIUS  HYSTASPIS.  291 

months.  The  usurpation  of  the  Magian  priests  was  avenged  by  a 
great  massacre,  of  which  the  memory  was  preserved  by  the  annual 
festival  called  Magophonia  (the  slaughter  of  the  Magians),  during 
which  no  Magian  might  show  himself  abroad  for  the  space  of  five 
days,  on  penalty  of  death/'^  This  is  one  of  the  most  curious 
examples  in  all  history  of  those  checks  which  a  government  finds 
it  necessary  to  impose  on  a  dominant  hierarchy.  For,  as  we  have 
already  seen,  the  religious  system  of  these  very  Magians  became 
the  popular  creed  throughout  the  Persian  empire,  notwithstand- 
ing the  failure  of  their  attempt  to  grasp  the  government.  They 
even  succeeded  in  securing  for  their  doctrine  the  traditional  au- 
thority of  their  great  political  enemy,  by  making  Zoroaster  con- 
temporary with  the  second  founder  of  the  empire. 

Throughout  the  inscription,  Darius  ascribes  his  success,  and 
indeed  all  his  subsequent  prosperity,  to  the  grace  of  Aura- 
mazda;  and  he  made  it  his  first  care  to  restore  the  temples 
and  the  worship  which  Gomates  the  Magian  had  overthrown. 
With  equal  distinctness  lie  claims  to  have  recovered  "  the 
empire  which,"  he  says,  "had  been  taken  away  from  our  family." 
This  is  a  clear  assertion  of  Ms  hereditary  right  to  the  throne,  and 
by  this  title  he  doubtless  obtained  it.  Herodotus,  indeed,  takes 
the  opportunity  to  entertain  his  readers  with  an  elaborate  discus- 
sion among  the  conspirators,  so  serious  that  it  was  not  begun  till 
quiet  was  secured  by  a  delay  of  five  days.  Otanes  argues  vehe- 
mently against  an  irresponsible  monarchy,  and  proposes  to  raise 
the  people  to  power,  on  that  princij)le  of  isonomy^  f  which  was  as 
dear  to  a  Greek  republican  as  the  equality  of  1789  is  to  a  modern 
Frenchman.  Megabyzus  contends  that  the  ignorant  wantonness 
of  a  rabble  is  even  worse  than  the  caprice  of  a  despot ;  and  urges 
his  comrades  to  establish  an  oligarchy,  not  only  as  the  best  form 
of  government,  but  for  the  sake  of  keeping  the  power  in  their  own 
hands.  Darius,  like  some  later  aspirants  to  imperial  power,  pushes 
the  last  argument  to  its  legitimate  conclusion  in  favour  of  the  mon- 
archy under  which  the  Persians  had  gained  their  freedom ;  and 
his  view  was  supported  by  the  remaining  four.  If  Herodotus,  as 
is  unquestionably  the  truth,  has  here  embodied  a  theoretical  dis- 
cussion from  a  Greek  point  of  view,  rather  than  any  actual  fact, 
he  has  at  least  given  a  plain  statement  of  the  motives  which  make 
men  prefer  the  two  latter  forms  of  government.  :j: 

*  The  parallel  to  the  general  massacre  of  the  Jews  planned  by  Ilaman  is  too  obvi- 
ous to  need  remark.  f  Equality  in  all  civil  and  political  rights. 
X  One   is   almost  inclined  to  suspect  a  sly  humour  in  the  gravity  with  which  he 


292  THE   MEDO-PERSIAN  EMPIRE.  [Chap.  X. 

Dakius,  the  son  of  Hystaspes,  of  tlie  royal  race  of  the  Achse- 
menids,  ascended  the  throne  in  e.g.  521.*  His  earlier  years 
were  disturbed  by  great  rebellions  in  Babylonia  and  Media,  under 
leaders  claiming  descent  from  former  kings.  In  the  inscription  so 
often  mentioned,  he  relates  the  particulars  of  these  revolts,  and 
how  he  suppressed  them  by  the  help  of  Auramazda.  He  then 
perfected  that  elaborate  system  for  the  government  of  his  empire 
which  w.e  shall  presently  describe.  But  first,  as  we  are  about  to 
change  our  point  of  view,  and  to  look  at  Asia  henceforward  from 
the  West,  let  us  cast  a  preparatory  glance  at  the  later  history  of 
the  Persian  Empire.  Ambitious  to  rival  Cyrus  as  a  conqueror, 
Darius  undertook  expeditions  beyond  the  extreme  south-eastern 
and  north-western  boundaries  of  his  empire,  against  India  and 
European  Scythia.  The  successes  of  his  generals  in  the  former 
country  seem  to  have  been  little  more  than  nominal ;  and  we  may 
reserve  what  we  have  to  say  of  that  interesting  land,  till  its  real 
appearance  in  the  current  of  general  history  under  Alexander. 
Herodotus  f  gives  a  most  picturesque  account  of  the  Scythian 
ex-pedition,  in  which  the  great  military  skill  of  Darius  rescued  his 
army  from  a  position  of  extreme  peril,  and  saved  himself  from  the 
fate  of  Cyrus.  Drawn  on  by  an  enemy  whose  wandering  hordes 
always  retired  before  him,  he  had  the  prudence  to  retreat  in  time. 
We  shall  have  to  recur  to  the  connection  of  tliis  campaign  with  the 
affairs  of  the  Asiatic  Greeks.  Permanent  results,  however,  fol- 
lowed from  the  expedition,  and  a  beginning  was  made  of  conquest 
in  Europe.  While  Darius  returned  to  Sardis,  he  left  Megabazus 
to  subdue  Thrace  and  the  Greek  cities  of  the  Hellespont.  That 
general  not  only  reduced  the  Thracian  tribes  as  far  west  as  the 

insists  that  such  speeches  were  made,  though  many  of  the  Greeks  disbelieved  it ;  as  if 
he  meant  that  they  ought  to  have  been  made. — Herod,  iii.  80. 

*  His  Persian  name  is  JDarayavush,  which  is  said  to  signify  the  restrainer.  His 
descent  is  traced  from  the  second  son  of  Teispes  (son  of  Achaemenes,  JIakhamani),  by 
the  same  number  of  generations  as  that  of  Cyrus  from  the  eldest  son  of  Teispes.  By 
his  marriage  with  Atossa,  daughter  of  Cyrus,  the  two  lines  were  united  in  his  son  Xerxes. 
It  deserves  notice  that  Hystaspes  was  still  alive.  Content,  doubtless,  with  the  satrapy 
of  Persia,  he  left  the  bolder  enterprise  to  his  son.  He  is  mentioned  in  the  Behistun 
inscription  as  a  satrap  under  Darius. 

^  Book  iv.  It  must  be  remembered  that  the  Scythians  here  referred  to  are  not  the 
great  nations  afterwards  known  by  that  name  in  Central  Asia,  though  they  also  origi- 
nally came  from  that  region,  and  were  of  the  same  great  Turanian  race.  They  inhabited 
the  region  round  the  north  of  the  Black  Sea,  between  the  Danube  and  the  Don,  from 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  they  had  expelled  the  Cimmerians,  and  which  was  afterwards 
called  Sarmatia,  from  one  of  their  tribes.  The  account  of  them  and  their  customs, 
which  Herodotus  derived  from  the  Greek  settlers  on  their  coast,  forms  to  this  day  a 
most  important  chapter  in  the  historv  of  ethnology. 


B.C.  485.]  DEATH   OF  DARIUS.  293 

Strymon ;  but,  crossing  that  river,  lie  extended  his  conquests  to 
nations  more  nearly  connected  with  the  Greeks.  The  Poeonians 
were  subdued,  and  most  of  them  were  removed  into  Asia ;  and 
Amyntas,  king  of  Macedonia,  acknowledged  the  supremacy  of  the 
Great  King,  by  the  customary  present  of  earth  and  water.  The 
envoys  of  Darius  gave  a  sample  of  the  insolence  with  which  the 
Persians  might  be  expected  to  behave,  and  paid  the  penalty  with 
their  lives ;  but  the  matter  was  hushed  up.  Thus  the  Persian 
Empire  was  extended  to  the  noi-thern  border  of  Thessaly ;  where  it 
hung  like  the  edge  of  an  advancing  glacier,  threatening  to  over- 
whelm the  free  states  of  Greece. 

The  intrigues  which  had  been  at  work  among  the  Ionian  cities, 
during  these  European  campaigns,  belong  to  Grecian  history.  It 
is  enough  here  to  mention  that  Ilistigeus,  the  tyrant  of  Miletus, 
w^as  deeply  engaged  in  these  intrigues,  though  he  had  thus  far 
given  all  his  lieli^,  in  public,  to  the  cause  of  Darius,  and  had  been 
rewarded  with  a  principality  on  the  Strymon.  His  conduct  there 
being  suspicious,  Darius  carried  him  away  with  him,  when  he  left 
Asia  Minor,  and  the  resentment  of  Histiseus  was  the  immediate 
cause  of  the  Ionian  revolt,  which  forms  the  true  beginning  of  the 
great  wars  between  Greece  and  Persia  (b.c.  500).  Meanwhile  the 
return  of  Darius  from  Sardis  to  Susa  was  followed  by  a  few  years 
of  profound  tranquillity  throughout  the  empire.  A  broad  line  of 
demarcation  is  here  drawn  between  the  glories  of  the  king's  first 
twenty  years,  and  the  troubles  of  his  last  sixteen,  which  shook. the 
empire  to  its  base. 

The  Ionian  revolt  occupied  the  six  years  from  b.c.  500  to  b.c. 
495.  Its  suppression  was  followed  by  a  brief  prospect  of  the  sub- 
jection of  Grecian  liberty  to  Asiatic  despotism,  the  consequences  of 
which  in  the  history  of  the  world  would  have  been  so  vast  a 
mischief  as  to  defy  all  calculation.  But  the  unaided  valour  of  the 
Athenians  at  Makathon  repulsed  the  first  invasion  ;  and,  what  was 
far  better,  proved  the  impotence  of  vast  barbarian  hosts  against  a 
small  band  of  well  trained  warriors,  where  each  heart  is  nerved  by 
the  consciousness  of  freedom  (b.c.  490).  The  vast  preparations 
of  Darius  for  a  new  invasion  were  interrupted  by  the  revolt  of 
Egypt  under  Inarus  (b.c.  486) ;  and  in  the  following  year  Darius 
died,  after  a  reign  of  thirty-six  years,  leaving  a  fame  only  second 
to  that  of  Cyrus  (b.c.  48.5).  The  one  founded  the  empire,  the 
other  rescued  it  from  revolution,  and  organized  its  whole  adminis- 
tration. 

But  the  very  same  hand  had  shaken  the  foundation  of  his  own 


294  THE   MEDO-PERSIAN  EMPIRE.  [Chap.  X. 

edifice  by  challenging  the  shock  of  •western  liberty ;  and  the 
headstrong  passions  of  his  successor,  Xerxes  *  (b.c.  485 — i65), 
hastened  the  catastrophe.  The  victories  of  Salamis  and  Plataj^ 
(b.c.  480 — 4Y9)  transferred  the  war  to  the  coasts  of  Asia;  while 
Xerxes  seems  to  have  lived  in  his  seraglio,  amidst  the  scenes 
descnbed  in  the  Book  of  Esther,  and  at  last  fell  a  victim  to  a 
conspiracy  in  his  palace.  The  internal  history  of  the  empire 
under  his  successors  is  a  confused  scene  of  rebellions  in  the  pro- 
vinces, internal  wars  among  the  satraps,  and  conspiracies  in  the 
seraglio.  Under  Artaxerxes  Mnemon,  the  memorable  expedition 
of  the  younger  Cyrus  (b.c.  401)  and  the  campaigns  of  Agesilaus 
in  Asia  (b.c.  396 — 394)  proved  how  vulnerable  the  empire  was, 
even  to  a  small  Greek  army,  and  gave  the  example  which  Alex- 
ander followed  when  he  finally  overthrew  the  power  of  Persia  (b.c. 
330).t 

Returning  from  this  brief  anticipatory  sketch,  it  remains  to 
take  a  general  survey  of  the  Persian  Empire,  as  organized  by  Da- 
rius, that  we  may  see  the  condition  of  the  Eastern  world  at  the 
epoch  when  the  Western  claims  our  attention. 

The  Persian  Empire  presents  the  chief  type  of  that  form  of 
government  which  we  still  see  in  Turkey,  a  power  wliose  domin- 
ions are  not  far  jfi'om  corresponding  to  those  of  the  Great  King  M'est 
of  the  table-land  of  Iran,  and  in  modern  Persia,  which  answers  very 
nearly  to  ancient  Media  and  Persia  Proper.  The  many  nations 
which  dwelt  from  the  Indus  to  the  Ister,  and  from  the  Sea  of  Aral 
to  the  shores  of  the  Greater  Syrtis,  retained  their  own  languages, 
laws,  manners,  and  religion.  In  many  places  the  native  princes  held 
the  honour,  and  part  of  the  power,  of  royalty.  The  cities  of  the 
more  civilized  provinces,  as  in  Ionia,  administered  their  own  inter- 

*  This  name  is  the  Greek  form  of  the  Persian  kshersJu-,  which  is  akin  to  the  San- 
skrit ksha(m  {king).  The  prefix  Arta  {noble),  so  common  iu  Persian  names,  gives  us 
Artaxerxes.  The  prefix  Cy  or  Kai,  which  we  still  see  iu  the  modern  Persian  name  of 
Cyrus  (Kai  Khosru)  converts  it  into  the  Median  Cyaxares.  Lastly,  the  Hebrew  pro- 
sthetic a  makes  A-chaaveronh  (Ahasuerus),  a  name  applied  alike  to  Cyaxares  (in  Daniel), 
to  Cambyses,  who  probably  used  this  royal  title  (in  Fzva),  and  to  Xerxes  (in  Esther). 

f  The  following  is  a  complete  list  of  the  Persian  kings,  from  the  foundation  of  the 
empire  to  its  fall :— (1)  Cyrus,  b.c.  559-529;  (2)  Cambyses,  b.c.  529-522;  (3)  Usurpa- 
tion of  the  Pscudo-SMERDis,  7  months,  B.C.  522-521 ;  (4)  Darics  I.,  son  of  Hystaspcs, 
B.C.  521-485  ;  (5)  Xerxes  I.,  B.C.  485-465 ;  (6)  Usurpation  of  Artabaxus,  7  months,  B.C. 
465-464 ;  (7)  Artaxerxes  I.,  Longimanus,  b.c.  464-425  ;  (8)  Xerxes  II.,  2  months, 
B.C.  425;  (9)  Sogdianus,  7  months,  b.c.  425-424;  (10)  Ochus,  or  Darius  IL,  Nothus, 
B.C.  424-405;  (11)  Artaxerxes  II.,  Mnemon,  b.c.  405-359;  (12)  Ochus,  or  Arta- 
xerxes III.,  B.C.  359-338;  (13)  Arses,  b.c.  338-336;  (14)  Darius  III.,  Codomannua, 
B.C.  336-330. 


CONSTITUTION  OF   THE  EMPIRE.  295 

nal  government ;  bnt  the  "  tyrants"  who  rose  to  power  in  them  were 
generally  favonred  by  Persia.  The  old  boundaries  of  the  nations 
marked  out,  for  the  most  part,  the  new  provinces,  or  Satrapies^  as 
they  were  called,  from  the  officer  who  ruled  each  as  the  royal  lieu- 
tenant.* That  sentiment  of  common  nationality  and  religion  which 
makes  the  great  majority  of  the  subjects  of  "Holy  Russia"  look 
to  the  Czar  as  a  father,  is  unknown  in  such  an  empire.  The 
sovereign  is  equally  supreme  and  irresponsible ;  but  it  is  as  the 
owner  of  the  whole  territory,  and  the  absolute  master  of  its  inha- 
bitants. In  theory,  the  king  delegated  as  much  of  his  authority  as 
he  pleased  to  the  satrap,  whom  he  appointed  from  any  nation  or 
rank,  and  degraded  or  put  to  death  at  his  will.  A  check  was 
provided  on  the  power  of  the  satrap  by  placing  the  command  of 
the  forces  in  separate  hands  ;  while,  sometimes  at  least,  the  com- 
mandants of  garrisons  were  independent  of  both.  Tlie  satrap, 
however,  was  often  the  military  commander,  especially  in  the 
frontier  provinces.  The  administration  of  justice,  too,  was  com- 
mitted to  officers  independent  of  the  satraps,  called  Hoyal  Judges. 
They  were  appointed  by  the  king,  who  called  them  to  account 
most  rigorously  for  any  corruption  in  their  office.  Cambyseshad 
one  such  offender  put  to  death  and  flayed,  and  his  skin  made  a 
covering  for  the  judgment  seat.f  The  proverbial  unchangeable- 
ness  of  the  Medo-Persian  laws  must  have  added  no  small  security 
against  judicial  oppression.  In  reference  to  one  of  the  most 
important  of  the  satrap's  functions,  and  the  one  most  tempting  to 
provincial  tyranny,  it  was  some  safeguard  to  the  people  that  each 
province  was  assessed  to  a  regular  amoimt  of  tribute,  and  not,  as 
in  the  modern  Persian  and  Turkish  kingdoms,  expected  to  furnish 
as  much  as  the  governor  can  extort.  The  satrap  might  indeed 
levy  for  his  own  use  as  much  as  his  power  or  prudence  permitted ; 
but  there  was  a  check  upon  his  extortion  in  the  interest  which  the 
king  had  in  preventing  the  impoverishment  of  the  provinces.    All 

*  The  Greek  word  satrap  {craTpdirr]s)  represents  the  khshatrapa  of  the  Behistim 
inscription.  It  is  explained  (though  not  beyond  doubt)  as  upholder  of  the  king  or 
kingdom.  (Rawlinson's  Herodotus,  vol.  ii.  p.  329.)  In  the  Behistun  inscription 
Darius  enumerates  twenty-three  countries  as  having  been  given  to  him  by  the  grace 
of  Auramazda.  Lists  are  given  with  some  important  additions,  in  the  inscriptions 
at  Persepolis  and  Naksh-i-Rustam,  which  are  of  later  date.  The  127  provinces 
of  the  Book  of  Esther,  like  the  120  of  Daniel,  must  be  understood  of  smaller 
divisions,  reckoning  separately  many  tribes  and  countries  which  were  united  in  the 
satrapies.  Herodotus  makes  the  number  of  the  satrapies  twenty,  and  gives  a 
full  description  of  them,  with  a  statement  of  their  revenues.  (Book  ill  chaps. 
90-94. 

\  Herod,  v.  25. 


296  THE   MEDO-PERSIAN  EMPIRE.  [Chap.  X. 

this,  however,  couhl  not  prevent  the  gross  abuse  of  the  enormous 
power  entrusted  to  tlie  satraps ;  and  there  are  strong  cases,  not 
only  of  extortion,  but  even  of  personal  outrage  upon  Persians  of 
the  highest  rank.  So  long,  in  fact  as  the  province  was  orderly 
and  flourishing,  the  tribute  regularly  remitted,  and  no  suspicion  of 
the  satrap's  fidelity  excited  by  his  own  conduct  or  by  the  machina- 
tions of  his  rivals,  he  enjoyed  the  state  and  much  of  the  power  of 
an  independent  sovereign.  This  seems  to  have  been  especially  the 
case  in  the  satrapies  of  Asia  Minor,  which,  besides  being  remote 
from  the  capital,  were  involved  in  the  restless  activities  of  Greek 
politics.  Here  we  find  embassies  received  and  sent,  and  alliances 
and  wars  made,  not  only  without  reference  to  the  court,  but  by  the 
different  satraps,  taking  different  sides.  Each  enlisted  his  own 
body  of  Greek  mercenaries,  with  whose  aid  they  made  war  upon 
one  another. 

Such  a  system  involved  the  constant  danger  of  rebellion  ;  and 
various  means  were  taken  to  guard  against  the  risk.  The  satrapies 
were  assigned,  as  far  as  possible,  to  members  of  the  royal  family 
and  nobles  connected  with  it  by  marriage.  A  watch  was  kept 
upon  the  satrap  by  a  "  Royal  Secretary,"  appointed  to  report  all 
his  proceedings  to  the  king.  Xenophon  tells  us  that  special  com- 
missioners Avere  also  sent  every  year,  to  make  enquiries  into  the 
condition  of  each  satrapy.  Upon  the  whole,  these  precautions 
seem  not  to  have  been  ineffective.  Excluding  those  revolts  which 
were  purely  national — such  as  those  of  Babylonia  and  Media  under 
Darius,  and  that  of  Egypt — the  attempt  of  the  younger  Cyrus  is 
almost  the  only  case  of  dangerous  rebellion  ;  and  this  was  a  matter 
of  temper  rather  than  of  policy.  In  process  of  time,  however,  some 
of  the  more  distant  or  less  easily  accessible  provinces  seem  quietly 
to  have  fallen  off  from  the  empire,  for  we  have  evidence  that  it 
was  of  less  extent  under  the  last  Darius  than  under  the  first. 

The  position  of  the  Great  King  himself  differed  in  no  material 
respect  from  that  of  an  Asiatic  despot  at  the  present  day,  such  aa 
the  Shah  of  modern  Persia.  He  appears  to  have  governed  without 
a  council,  except  when  of  his  mere  motion  he  convened  the  nobles 
to  aid  him  with  their  advice,  which  even  then  he  was  under  no 
obligation  to  follow.  If  his  courtiers  ventured  to  appeal  to  the 
unchanging  laws  of  the  Medo-Persians,  the  first  of  those  laws, 
according  to  the  royal  judges,  and  one  that  overrode  all  others, 
was  that  the  king  might  do  whatever  he  pleased.*    The  only 

*  This  answer  is  said  to  have  been  given  by  the  judges  to  Cambyses  to  cover  a 
peculiarly  flagrant  breach  of  law. — Herod,  iii.  31. 


END   OF   THE  ASIATIC   DESPOTISMS.  297 

effective  clieck  on  his  despotism  Avas  assassination,  the  fate  of  three 
of  the  Persian  kings — Xerxes  I.,  Xerxes  II.,  and  Artaxerxes  III. 
The  king  spent  his  life  in  the  retirement  of  the  seraglio,  at  Susa, 
Babylon,  or  Ecbatana,*  and  the  real  power  was  often  exercised 
by  a  fond  or  ambitious  queen  like  Parysatis,  or  a  powerful  eunuch, 
like  Bagoas.  This  degeneracy  may  be  dated  from  the  return  of 
Xerxes  from  Greece.  Darius  himself  administered  the  empire 
with  the  same  energy  by  which  it  was  reconquered  and  organized. 

The  Persian  Empire  was  the  last  of  those  great  Asiatic  des- 
potisms, whose  imperfectly  known  annals  we  have  endeavoured  to 
construct  into  this  second  book  of  our  History  of  the  World.  The 
position  which  these  monarchies  occupy  in  our  work  we  believe 
to  correspond  fairly  to  their  true  place  in  that  course  of  moral 
government  which  it  is  the  business  of  history  to  trace.  They 
stand  between  the  two  great  systems  of  patriarchal  order  and 
constitutional  liberty.  During  nearly  the  whole  two  thousand 
years  f  that  their  dominion  lasted,  the  former  system  was  still 
preserved  as  a  sort  of  protest  against  their  usurpation,  first  in  the 
purely  patriarchal  life  and  simple  worship  of  the  fathers  of  the 
Hebrew  race,  and  afterwards  in  the  theocratic  commonwealth 
which  was  based  upon  it.  And  the  more  we  keep  this  contrast  in 
view,  the  better  shall  we  understand  this  long  period  in  the  story 
of  mankind.  The  chosen  race,  with  all  its  faults,  stands  on  the 
rugged  spot  assigned  for  its  abode,  like  a  lighthouse  on  its  rock, 
piercing  the  surrounding  darkness,  and  revealing  the  restless  toss- 
ing of  the  waves  below.  There  is  preserved  the  life  which  has  been 
elsewhere  overwhelmed,  the  light  which  has  elsewhere  been 
quenched,  save  that  some  scattered  relics  of  a  better  state  here  and 
there  ride  out  the  storm.  And  by  that  light  we  cannot  fail  to  see 
that  the  deluge  of  despotism,  like  the  waters  of  l^oah,  was  a  judg- 
ment on  a  world  that  had  proved  faithless  to  its  trust.  "  O  Assy- 
rian, the  rod  of  mine  anger,  and  the  staff  in  their  hand  is  mine 
indignation.  Against  the  people  of  my  wrath  will  I  give  him  a 
charge,  to  take  the  spoil,  and  to  take  the  prey,  and  to  tread  them 
down  like  the  mire  of  the  streets."  ^     But  towards  the  close  of 

*  The  usual  custom  was  to  spend  the  spring  at  Susa,  the  summer  at  Eebatana,  and 
the  winter  at  Babylon.     Roads  were  made  by  Darius  to  all  parts  of  the  empire. 

\  This  is  merely  a  round  number,  reckoned  roughly  from  the  epochs  assigned,  ia 
the  way  we  have  already  described,  to  the  rise  of  the  Egyptian  and  Chaldsean  kingdoms, 
down  to  the  acme  of  the  Persian  Empire  in  B.C.  500.  A  more  definite  period  of  1500 
years  might  be  dated  from  the  birth  of  Abraham. 

j^  Isaiah  x.  5,  6. 


298  THE  MEDO-PERSIAN  EMPIRE.  [Chap.  X. 

this  period,  other  nations  arose  in  the  West,  to  work  out  another 
problem — whether  man's  free  energy  in  arms  and  laws,  in  poetry 
and  art,  in  learning  and  philosophy,  could  perfect  his  social  state. 
Our  attention  is  now  called  to  the  scene  of  that  experiment. 


NOTE  ON  THE  BEHISTUN  INSCRIPTION. 

This  most  memorable  record,  tlie  deciphering  of  whicli  by  Sir  Henry 
Rawlinson  not  only  threw  a  new  light  on  Persian  history,  but  formed  the 
first  step  in  the  science  of  cuneiform  interpretation,  is  engraved  on  a  pre- 
cipitous rock  1700  feet  high,  belonging  to  the  chain  of  Zagros.  The  spot 
is  near  the  road  from  Babylon  to  the  southern  of  the  two  cities  named 
Ecbatana,  the  highway  connecting  the  eastern  and  western  provinces  of 
the  empire.  At  the  height  of  300  feet  above  the  base  of  the  rock  is  a 
great  bas-relief,  representing  captives  of  various  nations  brought  before  the 
king,  and  round  this  is  the  inscription,  in  several  columns.  It  is  written 
in  the  cuneiform  character,  and  in  three  languages — the  old  Persian,  the 
Babylonian,  and  the  so-called  Median,  which  we  have  seen  reason  to  regard 
as  Scythic.  Thus,  as  we  have  had  occasion  to  remark,  it  was  addressed  to 
the  three  great  races  of  the  empire — the  Aryan,  Semitic,  and  Turanian ; 
just  as,  at  the  present  day,  the  edicts  of  the  Sultan  are  published  in  Persian, 
Arabic,  and  Turkish.  The  character  and  interpretation  of  the  inscription 
were  first  discussed  by  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson,  who  refers  it,  from  internal 
evidence,  to  the  fifth  year  of  Darius,  B.C.  516  [Journal  of  the  Asiatic  So- 
ciety, Vol.  X.).  Sir  Henry's  translation  is  printed,  with  a  transcript  of  the 
Persian  form  of  the  document,  in  Rawlinson's  Herodotus,  vol.  ii.,  p.  590. 
There  are  other  important  inscriptions  of  Darius,  of  a  later  date,  at  Perse- 
polis  and  Nahsh-i-Rustam. 

It  is  proper  here  to  acknowledge  our  great  obligations  throughout  the 
preceding  chapter,  to  the  labours  of  Professor  Rawlinson  ;  and  in  particulai 
to  his  Essays  on  the  Lydian  and  Median  Empires,  and  on  the  Religion  and 
Government  of  the  Persians,  in  the  first  and  s3cond  volumes  of  his  trans 
lation  of  Herodotus. 


BOOK    III. 


HISTORY   OF   GREECE. 


FROM  THE  EARLIEST  LEGEIs^DS  TO  THE  ACCESSION"  OF  PHILIP 

OF  MACEDOK 


CONTENTS   OF  BOOK  III. 


CHAP. 

XI.— THE   MYTHICAL   AGE   OF   GREECE. 

XII.— THE   HELLENIC   STATES  AJ^B   COLOXIES. 
XIII.— THE   PERSIAN   WARS. 
XIV.— RIVALRY   OF   THE   GREEK  REPUBLICS. 


CONTRAST  BETWEEN  ASIA  AND  EUROPE.  301 


CHAPTEE  XI. 


THE  MYTHICAL  AGE  OF  GREECE. 


Some  time  let  gorgeous  Tragedy 
In  scepter'd  pall  come  sweeping  by, 
Presenting  Thebes,  or  Pelops'  line. 
Or  the  tale  of  Troy  divine.— Milton. 

CONTRAST  OF  ASIATIC  DESPOTISM  AND  GRECIAN  LIBERTY — SURVEY  OF  THE  WESTERN  'WORLD — 
GREECE  AND  ROME — THEIR  PART  IN  THE  WORLD's  HISTORY — EARLIEST  POPULATION  OF 
GREECE  AND  ITALY — THE  PELASGIAN  RACE — DESCRIPTION  OF  GREECE — THE  HELLENIC 
RACE  AND  ITS  FOUR  DIVISIONS — EARLIEST  TRADITIONS — STORIES  OF  EGYPTIAN  AND  PHCENI- 
CIAN  SETTLEMENTS — THE  ALPHABET — HOW  HISTORY  DEALS  WITH  THE  MYTHICAL  LEGENDS — 
THEIR  CHARACTER  AND  CONSTRUCTION — LEGENDS  OF  THE  GODS — JOVE  AND  THE  OLYMPIC 
DEITIES — APOLLO  AND  THE  ORACLE  AT  DELPHI — LEGENDS  OF  THE  HEROES — HERCULES — 
THESEUS — MINOS — THE  ARGONAUTS — STORY  OF  THEBES — THE  TROJAN  WAR — THE  HOMERIC 
POEMS. 

As  we  trace  the  history  of  the  great  Empires  of  the  East,  we 
feel  the  painful  sense  of  something  wanting  to  the  happiness,  nay, 
to  the  very  social  life,  of  humanity.  That  something  is  the  spirit 
of  individual  freedom,  creating  its  own  proper  sphere  of  action  in 
a  free  state.  Just  as  a  man's  life  consists  not  in  the  abundance 
of  the  things  that  he  hath,  so  the  true  life  of  our  race  could  not 
be  satisfied  by  the  material  wealth  and  civilization  M'hich  flourished 
on  the  banks  of  the  Nile  and  the  Euphrates,  much  less  by  the 
splendour  of  their  empires.  The  very  regions  themselves  are  a 
type  of  tlieir  inhabitants.  The  torrid  climate  and  the  vast  masses 
of  land  seem  to  require  a  fresher  air  and  greater  freedom  of  inter- 
course, to  rouse  tlie  people  to  vigorous  life.  These  boundless 
tracts  lie  ever  open  to  the  march  of  a  conquering  despot,  for  whose 
enrichment  the  fertile  soil  yields  her  produce  to  the  labour  of  a 
subject  population. 

The  spell  of  despotism,  which  so  early  mastered  Asia,  could  only 
be  broken  by  some  hardier  power,  or  dispelled  by  the  infusion  of 
a  healthier  moral  tone.  Both  means  were  tried,  and  both  were 
permitted  to  fail.  The  Hebrew  commonwealth,  which  might  have 
taught  these  nations  the  true  liberty  of  a  pure  religion,  fell  into 
their  slavery  by  forsaking  its  own  privileges.  The  hardier  and 
freer  races,  which  poured  down  from  the  table-land  of  Iran,  had 
already  succumbed  to  despotic  power,  and  soon  j)aid  dear  for  their 
conquest  by  sinking  into  the  state  of  the  conquered  nations. 


303  THE  MYTHICAL  AGE   OF   GREECE.  [Chap.  XI. 

But,  meanwliile,  we  have  followed  the  tide  of  conquest  from 
East  to  "West ;  and  now  we  may  be  permitted  to  fancy  something 
of  the  feelings  of  the  Persian  conqueror,  if  he  marched  down  the 
valley  of  the  Hermus  to  its  mouth,  and  saw  the  open  sea  spread 
out  before  him.  Ascending  one  of  the  rocky  headlands  to  look 
out  over  the  ^gasan,  and  breathe  the  unwonted  freshness  of  the 
sea  air,  he  would  gaze  over  the  islands  of  the  fair  Archipelago  at 
his  feet  towards  the  land  that  forms  the  opposite  shore.  He  knows 
something  of  the  spirit  of  the  Hellenic  nation,  deeply  as  it  has 
degenerated  in  Asia ;  and  he  has  had  a  specimen  of  its  free 
hardihood  in  its  native  home.*  As  he  despises  their  threats,  and 
marks  them  out  as  speedy  victims  to  his  ambition,  he  knows  not 
that  in  that  spirit  is  a  force  more  puissant  than  the  many  nations 
he  can  bring  into  the  field  ;  and  less  still  does  he  think,  as  he 
turns  away  to  complete  his  Asiatic  conquests,  that  their  result  will 
be  to  gather  up  those  nations  into  one,  ready  to  be  smitten  by  the 
power  of  Greece,  taught  her  language,  and  brought  under  her 
influence,  in  preparation  for  other  and  more  lasting  conquests.  To 
follow  these  great  revolutions  in  the  history  of  the  world,  we  must 
change  our  point  of  view  to  the  West. 

By  adhering  to  our  plan  of  following  that  which,  for  the  time 
being,  forms  the  main  current  of  the  world's  history,  and  awaiting 
the  point  at  which  the  several  nations  fall  into  it  as  tributaries, 
our  views  of  the  early  history  of  the  West  may  be  greatly  simpli- 
fied. Looking  round  the  nations  on  the  shores  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean and  further  inland,  we  have  seen  Tlirace  subjected  to  Persia ; 
and  we  have  had  a  glimpse,  sufiicient  for  the  present,  of  the 
Scythian  tribes  beyond  the  Danube.  The  Germans,  and  the  other 
races  of  Northern  Europe,  are  as  yet  far  removed  from  any  claim 
on  our  attention.  So  is  the  whole  western  region,  beyond  the 
Alps  and  the  Ehine,  including  Gaul  and  Spain,  which,  we  need 
only  now  remark,  was  known  by  fame  to  Herodotus  as  the  Celtic 
Land.  On  the  opposite  shore,  the  Persian  empire  extends  over 
Egypt,  and,  nominally  at  least,  over  Libya  and  the  Greek  colonies 
of  Cyrenaica,  as  far  west  as  the  great  Syrtis.  Tlie  remaining  half 
of  the  northern  shores  of  Africa  has  been  already  brought  to  a 
great  extent  under  the  dominion  of  Carthage,  whose  history — with 
some  further  notice  of  Plioenicia,  her  mother  country — we  reserve 
till  the  time  of  her  appearance  in  rivalry  with  Eome. 

There  remain  only  the  two  peninsulas,  which  the  united  voice 

*  See  the  tale  of  the  defiance  sent  to  Cyrus  by  the  Spartans,  chap.  x.  p.  274. 


GREECE  AND  ROME.  303 

of  educated  Europe  has  long  agreed  to  mark  as  classic  ground 
— Greece  and  Italy.  From  each  in  turn  went  forth  a  power, 
only  second  in  its  influence  on  the  world  to  that  which  had 
its  centre  in  the  Holy  Land ;  after  each  had,  on  her  own  soil, 
worked  out  some  of  the  greatest  experiments  in  politics.  The 
independent  states  of  Greece,  having  tried  the  various  models 
of  republican  freedom,  and  having  proved  the  power  of  liberty 
to  repel  subjugation,  and  to  cultivate  the  intellect  of  man  to 
the  highest  pitch  in  literature  and  oratory,  philosophy  and  art, 
— at  length  yielded  up  their  separate  liberties  to  the  Mace- 
donian, whose  son  founded  a  new  Hellenic  Avorld  on  the  ruins 
of  the  Persian  Empire,  and  effected  a  sort  of  intellectual 
conquest  of  the  East.  Rome  accomplished  quite  another  work. 
Unlike  the  many  states  of  Greece,  she  formed  one  political  body 
from  the  very  first,  bound  together  by  respect  for  law,  and  by  a 
strict  military  discipline.  Strong,  hard,  tenacious,  and  unyielding, 
as  the  iron  which  formed  her  emblem  in  Nebuchadnezzar's  dream, 
she  welded  the  nations  she  subdued  into  a  true  empire ;  subjecting 
at  the  same  time  the  very  face  of  each  land  to  the  use  of  man  by 
the  roads  made  for  her  armies.  "While  she  gave  the  world  her 
laws, — to  this  day  the  most  abiding  result  of  her  dominion, — she 
received  in  return  the  varied  fruits  of  their  civilization.  Conquered 
Greece,  especially,  had  the  noble  revenge  of  subduing  the  rude 
conquerors  by  her  arts  and  letters.  The  combined  effect  of  these 
two  conquests  was  to  unite  the  East  by  the  universal  language  of 
Greece  and  the  universal  dominion  of  Rome,  in  preparation  for 
the  appearance  of  Christianity;  and  to  make  its  diffusion  easy 
over  the  Romanized  provinces  of  the  West.  And  when,  by  the 
process  of  decay  and  division,  the  iron  feet  on  which  the  imperial 
image  had  stood  so  firm,  ended  in  the  toes  of  feiTuginous  clay, 
these  still  had  in  them  some  share  of  the  iron:  to  translate 
the  image, — the  fruits  of  the  Roman  ascendancy  endured,  and 
still  endure,  in  those  bonds  of  language,  laws,  letters,  policy, 
traditions,  and  religion,  which  have  made  Western  Em*oj)e  a  com- 
munity of  nations.  To  follow  the  history  of  these  vast  changes, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  show  how  the  East  fell  off  from  the  last 
of  the  ancient  empires,  forms  the  remaining  portion  of  our  present 
work. 

The  various  tribes  which  peopled  the  two  peninsulas  of  Southern 
Europe  were  members  of  one  great  branch  of  the  Indo-European 
race,  to  which  ethnographers  have  given  the  name  of  Pelasgian. 
The  "Greek  and  Latin  languages  are  essentially  but  dialects  of 


304  THE   MYTHICAL  AGE   OF   GREECE.  [Chap.  XI. 

the  same  tongue.  To  explain  tlio  forms  and  roots  of  one  language, 
vre  must  often  refer  to  the  other,  not  for  remote  analogies,  but  the 
most  necessary  steps."-^  This  comnnmity  of  languages  is  the  chief 
of  many  proofs  of  a  community  of  race ;  but  whence  this  common 
race  came  into  the  two  peninsulas,  and  to  which  of  the  other 
Japhetic  families  they  were  most  nearly  related,  are  questions  too 
wide  and  doubtful  for  discussion  here.  The  familiar  names  of 
both  countries  entirely  fail  to  describe  their  primitive  inhabitants. 
That  of  Italy  is  so  far  ethnic,  that  it  is  derived  from  a  wide- 
spread people,  but  only  in  the  southern  half  of  the  peninsula  and 
Sicily  (the  Itali  or  Siculi) ;  the  name  Latin  is  that  of  a  compara- 
tiyely  small  nation,  with  whom  the  TJomans  were  closely  connected 
from  the  earliest  times;  Eoman,  it  need  hardl}-  be  said,  described 
at  first  only  a  citizen  of  Rome  itself.  Greece^  strange  to  say,  was 
a  name  almost  unknown  by  the  people  whom  we  call  Greeks,  and 
neyer  used  by  them  to  describe  their  country.  It  was  first  adopted 
by  the  Romans,  from  whom  the  name  has  descended  to  us,  through 
the  precedence  so  long  given  in  education  to  Roman  before  Greek 
literature.f  ISTor  is  it  unusual  for  a  country  and  its  people  to  be 
generally  known  by  a  foreign  name.  As  the  Greeks  and  Romans 
called  the  liasena  Tp'rhenians,  Etruscans  and  Tuscans,  and  as  the 
Romans  called  the  Hellenes  Greeks,  so  we  call  the  Deutscheii 
Germans,  and  the  Cymry  Welsh.  Even  the  renowned  Hellenic 
name  sprang  from  a  small  tribe  in  the  remote  region  of  Thessaly ; 
and  the  Hellenic  nations  themselves  are  known  to  Homer  by 
other  and  separate  names. 

In  both  countries,  some  of  the  leading  races  gratified  their  pride, 
while  they  threw  a  thin  covering  over  their  ignorance,  by  boasting 
that  they  were  sprung  fii'om  the  land  which  they  had  possessed 
from  the  beginning. :}:     The  earliest  race  whom  we  know  to  have 

*  For  the  general  reader,  who  may  not  be  well  acquainted  with  modern  philology, 
it  will  perhaps  not  be  superfluous  to  give  a  passing  warning  against  deriving  Latin  from 
Greek,  any  more  than  Greek  from  Latin.  They  are  cognate  dialects  of  some  ancient 
speech,  which  no  longer  exists  in  its  original  form,  each  having  also  elements  peculiar 
to  itself;  something  as  Italian,  French,  and  Spanish  have  all  sprung  from  Latin.  Gen- 
erally speaking,  the  older  dialects  of  the  Greek  are  nearest  to  the  Latin,  for  reasons 
well  known  to  the  philologian. 

f  The  origin  of  the  name  Gracia  is  still  obscure.  Aristotle  first  names  the  Graci 
as  a  tribe  in  or  near  the  small  district  of  Hellas,  which  he  places  in  Epirus,  while  the 
other  Greek  writers  place  it  in  Thessaly.  A  plausible  conjecture  is,  that  the  Romans, 
becoming  acquainted  first  with  these  Gracci  on  the  further  shore  of  the  Adriatic, 
extended  the  name  to  the  whole  country. 

\  Witness  the  Autochthones  of  Attica  and  the  Aborigines  of  Latium ;  besides  the 
legends  of  the  repeopling  of  Thessaly  by  stones  transformed  into  men  and  women 


THE   PELASGIAX  RACE.  305 

been  generally  Bpread,  not  only  throughout  Loth  continents,  hut 
over  the  adjacent  islands  and  even  into  Asia  Minor,  were  the 
Pelasgia^ts,  a  people  of  savage  manners,  but  civilized  enough  to 
till  the  earth  and  to  build  walled  cities.  Their  religion  was  that 
form  of  polytheism  which  prevailed  in  both  countries  till  it 
yielded  to  Christianity ;  mainly  a  personification  of  the  elemental 
powers  and  the  heavenly  bodies,  with  a  host  of  inferior  deities 
who  haunted  the  woods  and  waters,  presided  over  favoured  cities. 
and  watched  over  men  as  tutelary  spirits  ; — "  Good  demons, 
dwelling  upon  the  earth,  because  of  the  counsels  of  Great  -Jove, 
the  guardians  of  mortal  men."  * 

The  supreme  deity,  in  the  form  which  the  mythology  finally 
assumed,  was  .Jove,+  the  god  of  the  air,  who,  with  the  lesser  dei- 
ties, chiefly  his  sons  and  daughters, 

"  from  the  snowy  top 
Of  cold  01jTiipu3,  ruled  tlie  middle  air, 
77ieir  higtieH  heaven."" 

The  learning  of  our  great  poet  here  represents  accurately  the 
Greek  idea  of  the  abode  of  Jove,  as  we  see  it  in  Homer ;  and  so 
too  it  was  in  the  most  literal  sense  that  Jove  threw  Vulcan  "  sheer 
o'er  the  crystal  battlements  "  of  his  palace  on  Olympus  down  upon 
"  Lemnos  the  ^ga?an  isle."  But  mutations  in  the  earlier  faith 
are  shown  by  the  transference  of  the  supremacy  from  Ouranos 
(Heaven)  to  Cronus  (Time,  the  Latin  Saturn),  and  from  him  to 
Jove ;  revolutions  which  raise  interesting  questions  as  to  a  pos- 
sible connection  with  the  Sabeeism  of  the  East. 

The  Pelasgians  were  displaced  by  more  warlike  tribes,  gen- 
erally of  a  kindred  race ;  but  remnants  were  left  of  them  in 
various  portions  of  their  old  countries,  like  those  which  remain  of 
the  old  Cymrian  population  of  our  own  islands.  We  do  not  pro- 
pose to  encumber  our  j>ages  with  ethnic  questions,  which  it  would 
be  impossible  to  discuss  fully,  and  which  are  still  involved  in 
great  obscurity :  enough  has  been  said  to  show  the  close  connexion 
of  the  two  countries  ;  and  we  have  now  to  speak  of  Greece,  as  the 
one  of  which  we  have  the  earlier  historic  noticc-s,  which  first  came 

after  the  deluge  of  Deucalion,  and  of  Bceotia  bv  the  armed  men  who  sprang  from  the 
dragon's  teeth  sown  by  Cadmos. 

*  Hesiod. 

f  Thia  form  is  adopted  not  only  as  the  most  English,  but  the  most  accurate  repr^ 
sentation  of  the  root  common  to  the  Greek  Zeus  and  the  Latin  Ja-piter,  i.  e.  Father  Jove. 
Here  we  may  remark,  once  for  all,  that  when  we  reluctantly  follow  the  unscholarlike 
custom  of  calling  the  Greek  deities  by  Latin  names,  it  is  because  the  true  names  might 
hardly  be  intelligible  to  English  readere. 
VOL.  I. — 20 


306  THE  MYTHICAL   AGE   OF   GREECE.  [Chap.  XI. 

into  contact  with  the  monarchies  of  Asia,  wliich  colonized  the 
shores  of  the  Mediterranean  and  of  Italy  itself,  before  Rome  was 
built,  and  which  exercised  a  wide  influence  on  the  civilization 
of  the  world  while  Rome  was  only  as  yet  maturing  her  constitu- 
tion. It  is  necessary  to  take  a  brief  survey  of  the  land  itself; 
for  its  position,  formation,  and  climate  have  much  to  do  with  the 
jiistory  of  the  people ;  but  without  entering  into  those  minor 
details  which  belong  exclusively  to  geography. 

Greece  forms  the  southern  portion  of  a  much  larger  peninsula, 
the  base  of  which  extends  nearly  along  the  forty-fifth  parallel  of 
north  latitude,  from  the  northern  recess  of  the  Adriatic  to  the 
mouths  of  the  Danube,  About  three  degrees  further  to  the  south, 
the  upper  and  wide  portion  of  this  peninsula  is  traversed  by  a  great 
chain  of  mountains,  which  bore  various  names  in  its  western  part, 
its  eastern  half  forming  the  range  celebrated  in  ancient  and  modem 
times  under  the  names  of  H^mus  and  the  Balkan.  South  of  this 
chain  Thrace,  Macedonia,  and  the  southern  portion  of  Illyria, 
stretched  across  from  the  Black  Sea  and  the  Bosporus  to  the 
Adriatic  ;  countries  inhabited  by  non-Hellenic  races,  but  closely 
connected  with  the  history  of  Greece.  Further  still  to  the  south, 
another  range  extends  nearly  along  the  fortieth  parallel  of  north 
latitude,  from  the  mouth  of  the  Adriatic  to  the  north-western  gulf 
of  the  ^gsean.  This  chain,  called  Lingon  and  the  Cambuuian 
Mountains,  runs  far  out  to  sea  at  its  western  extremity  in  the 
"  ill-famed  rocks  "  of  the  Acroceraunian*  headland,  while  on  the 
east  it  terminates  in  Mount  Olympus,  at  the  foot  of  which  the 
narrow  and  beautiful  pass  of  Tempe  forms  at  once  the  entrance  to 
the  plain  of  Thessaly  and  the  first  portal  to  Greece  itself.  The 
range  forms,  in  fact,  the  base  of  the  true  peninsula  of  Greece. 
Below  it  the  comparatively  large  divisions  of  Thessaly  and  Epims, 
— the  former  on  the  east,  and  the  latter  on  the  west  of  the  moun- 
tain-chain which  runs  down  from  Balkan,  across  the  Cambunian 
range,  and  forms  the  backbone  of  the  whole  peninsula, — were  the 
earliest  seats  of  the  Greek  nation  and  religion,  though  in  later 
times  they  lie  chiefly  beyond  the  range  of  the  most  important  parts 
of  Grecian  history.f  One  degree  still  further  to  the  south  (in  39° 
N.  latitude)  the  peninsula  is  divided  by  a  true  isthmus  between 
the  Pagasaean  and  Ambracian  Gulfs ;  and  across  this  isthmus  runs 

•  The  name  signifies  the  Cape  of  Thunderbolts. 

f  At  the  erection  of  the  modern  Greek,  or,  aa  it  is  now  called  under  its  new  king, 
the  Hellenic,  kingdom,  these  two  districts  were  left  to  Turkey. 


DESCRIPTION  OF  THE   LAXD.  307 

Mount  Othrys.  Finally,  the  thirty-eigbtli  parallel  of  north  latitude 
passes  through  the  narrow  isthmus  of  Corinth,  barely  separating 
the  two  gulfs  which  would  otherwise  make  Peloponnesus  (the 
island  of  Pelops)  a  true  island.  The  mountain-chains,  which  we 
have  seen  arranged  so  regularly  in  Northern  Greece,  stretch 
diagonally  across  the  central  portion  of  the  land,  terminating  in 
Cape  Sunium,  the  apex  of  the  triangle  of  Attica  ;  while  a  parallel 
chain  supports  the  island  of  Euboea  ;  and  both  are  prolonged  into 
the  JEgagan,  forming  the  islands  called  the  Cyclades.  In  Pelopon- 
nesus, the  mountains  form  a  sort  of  central  wall  around  Arcadia, 
whence  chains  diverge  in  all  directions,  jutting  out  into  long  prom- 
ontories, and  enclosing  deep  gulfs,  which  give  the  peninsula  a  rough 
general  resemblance  to  the  leaf  of  a  plane-tree.  Tlie  chief  backbone 
of  the  whole  country  is  prolonged  in  the  island  of  Cythera,  and 
again  in  Crete,  which  lies  like  a  huge  breakwater  off  the  mouth  of  the 
^gsean,  and  from  which  again  the  islands  of  Carpathos  and  Rliodes 
complete  the  chain  to  the  south-western  headland  of  Asia  Minor. 
Thus  intersected  throughout  with  mountains,  and  deeply  in- 
dented by  the  sea,  from  which  the  small  size  of  the  whole  country 
prevented  any  part  from  being  very  distant,  Greece  possessed  the 
two  physical  features  which  have  always  tended  most  to  rear  a  free 
and  enterprising  race.  The  Greeks  were  at  once  mountaineers  and 
mariners ;  and  all  experience  proves  the  ennobling  effects  produced 
upon  the  imagination  of  those  who  live  among  highlands  and  beside 
the  sea.  But,  more  than  this,  the  mountains  at  once  formed  a 
barrier  against  invasion  from  without,  and  broke  up  the  land  into 
separate  portions,  like  the  valleys  of  Switzerland,  holding  little 
intercourse  with  each  other,  and  each  forming  a  free  political  state, 
with  its  city  for  a  centre  ;  while  the  sea  offered  the  means  of  com- 
munication which  were  wanting  upon  the  land,  and  invited  the 
people  to  maritime  adventures.  Such  adventures  naturally  as- 
sumed the  shape  of  piratical  incursions,  among  men  ignorant  of 
the  arts  of  civilization  and  pressed  by  the  common  wants  of  life. 
For  the  small  plains  and  valleys,  though  fertile,  were  few  in  com- 
parison with  the  rugged  mountain  tracts,  and  patient  labour  is 
distasteful  to  a  rude  and  hardy  race. 

*'  For  why  ? — the  rule  suffices  them, 
The  old  and  simple  plan, 
That  they  should  take  who  have  the  power, 
And  they  should  keep  who  can."  * 


*  In  this  universal  piracy  Thucydides  found  an  explanation  of  the  fact,  that  the  old 
Greek  cities  were  built  far  inland. 


308  THE  [MYTHICAL   AGE   OF   GREECE.  [Chap.  XI. 

By  thus  constantly  attacking  one  another,  the  several  states  kept 
up  a  keen  rivalry  of  independence,  and  were  exercised  in  war ; 
while  they  found  a  wider  scope  for  their  energy  in  those  distant 
expeditions  the  fame  of  which  survives  in  the  Argonautic  and 
Trojan  legends,  and  in  those  others  by  which  they  planted  col- 
onies far  and  wide  over  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean. 

Conditions  somewhat  similar,  in  a  northern  clime,  produced 
the  fierce  sea-kings  of  our  own  early  history ;  but  there  were 
other  influences  at  work,  upon  the  Greeks.  Susceptible  to  exter- 
nal impressions,  and  alive  to  every  form  of  harmony  and  beauty, 
above  all  other  nations,  they  enjoyed  a  climate  which  might  have 
breathed  life  into  the  dullest  race,  and  which  clothed  their  moun- 
tains, bays,  and  islands  with  a  beauty  ever  varying  between  the 
saffron  hues  of  dawn,  the  fixed  brilliancy  of  noon,  the  violet  light 
in  which  the  setting  sun  bathes  the  hills, 

"  Where  tenderest  tints  along  their  summits  driv'n, 
Mark  his  gay  course  and  own  the  hues  of  heav'n  " — 

and  the  clear  transparent  shades  or  bright  moonlight  of  the  night. 
"Well  did  one  of  their  poets  describe  the  Athenians  as  "  ever  deli- 
cately marching  through  most  pellucid  air."  Such  influences 
raised  the  spirit  of  the  people  to  that  keen  and  just  sense  of 
beauty  which  is  embodied  in  the  perfection  of  their  arts. 

We  have  seen  that  the  earliest  inhabitants  of  this  fair  land 
were  the  Pelasgians,  a  people  whose  history  is  enveloped  in  ob- 
scurity. In  some  parts  of  the  country,  and  especially  in  the 
islands,  there  dwelt  other  races,  such  as  the  Leleges  and  Carians. 
At  a  period  long  before  the  beginning  of  recorded  history,  a  more 
vigorous  and  wai'like  race,  akin  to  the  Pelasgians,  drove  them  out 
from  their  possessions,  except  some  portions  in  which  they  held 
their  ground,  and  especially  the  central  highlands  of  Arcadia. 
These  conquerors  were  the  Hellenes,  who  were  believed  to  have 
issued  from  the  district  of  Thessaly  immediately  north  of  Mount 
Othrys.  Their  name  was  given  to  the  ^yhole  country,  and  ulti- 
mately to  all  their  settlements,  however  distant.  For,  divided 
as  they  were  politically  into  small  states,  they  cherished  the  idea 
of  national  unity  ;  and  their  distant  colonies  on  the  Cimmerian 
Bosporus,  the  mouth  of  the  Rhone,  and  the  coast  of  Africa,  were 
as  much  a  part  of  Hellas  as  xVthens  and  Sparta  themselves. 

In  their  earliest  records,  however,  and  particularly  in  the 
Homeric  poems,  the  Hellenic  people  are  known  by  the  names 
of  their  several  tribes  ;  and  these  were  distinguished  by  marked 


THE  HELLENIC  RACE.  309 

differences  of  language  and  character,  and  ultimately  of  political 
institutions.  There  were  four  chief  divisions  of  the  nation,  the 
Dorians,  Cohans,  Achaeans,  and  lonians.  The  afhnities  of  these 
races  were  represented  by  an  imaginary  genealogy,  descending 
from  the  gods.  The  Titanic  deity*  Prometheus,  the  creator  of 
mankind,  and  their  preserver  from  the  jealousy  of  Jove,  was  the 
father  of  Deucalion,  in  whose  days  all  the  human  race  perished 
by  a  flood,  except  himself  and  his  wife  Pyrrha.  Deucalion  was 
the  father  of  Hellen,  the  "  hero  eponymus  "  of  the  Hellenic  race. 
Hellen  had  three  sons,  Dorus,  ^olus,  and  Xuthus  ;  and  the  last 
was  the  father  of  Achaeus  and  Ion.  Xuthus  is  a  mere  connecting 
link  in  the  pedigree,  to  indicate  the  close  relation  between  the 
Achaeans  and  the  lonians,  who  are  represented  as  dwelling  to- 
gether in  the  Peloponnesus  and  Attica,  while  the  Dorians  and 
Cohans  occupied  chiefly  Northern  Greece.  This  view  is  con- 
firmed by  the  dialects  of  which  we  still  possess  the  literary  re- 
mains.f  To  speak  more  particularly,  the  earliest  known  distri- 
bution of  the  four  races  is  as  follows  : — The  JEolians  were  spread 
over  Northern  Greece,  and  occupied  also  the  western  coast  of 
Peloponnesus  and  the  islands  now  called  Ionian.  The  Achaeans 
were  the  dominant  people  of  Peloponnesus,  of  which  they  held 
the  south  and  east,  the  Arcadians  retaining  the  centre.  The 
lonians,  who  are  as  yet  of  little  consequence,  had  a  narrow  slip 
of  country  along  the  northern  coast  of  Peloponnesus,  and  extended 
eastward  into  Attica.  The  Dorians  have  scarcely  yet  shown 
themselves  beyond  the  small  patch  of  territory  on  the  southern 
slopes  of  Mount  CEta,  and  north  of  Delphi,  which  preserved  their 
name  in  the  historic  age.  Such  appears  to  have  been  the  distri- 
bution of  the  races  in  the  age  represented  by  the  Homeric  poems, 
and  before  the  great  Dorian  invasion  of  Peloponnesus. 

The  Greeks  of  this  age  have  no  history,  in  the  proper  sense  of 
the  word.     The  materials  of  history  are  altogether  wanting  ;  and 

*  The  Titans— sons  of  Ouranus  (Heaven)  and  Ga;a  (Earth) — were  the  deities  of  the 
older  mythology  antecedent  to  Jove  and  the  Olympic  gods. 

f  The  discussion  of  philological  problems  is  not  within  the  scope  of  our  work  ;  but 
we  may  say  in  passing,  that  we  regard  the  language  of  Homer  as  essentially  Acheean,  a 
dialect  little  different  from  the  old  Ionian,  as  distinguished  from  the  later  literary  Ionic. 
As  Homer's  Greeks  are  Achteans,  it  would  be  wonderful  if  his  own  Greek  were  any- 
thing but  Achaean.  The  ^Eolian  forms  (and  the  Dorian,  if  any)  in  his  poems  are 
accounted  for  by  the  want  of  that  decisive  separation  between  the  dialects  which  after- 
wards became  fixed  in  the  literature  of  the  different  races.  The  theory  of  a  mixed 
dialect,  framed  by  the  poet,  and  therefore  called  epic,  is  altogether  inadmissible  ;  but 
it  is  not  denied  that  some  peculiar  forma  may  have  been  invented  to  suit  the  genius  or 
exigencies  of  the  poetry. 


310  THE  MYTHICAL  AGE  OF  GREECE.  [Chap.  XI. 

their  place  is  supplied  bj  a  mass  of  religious,  genealogical,  ethni- 
cal, and  poetical  legends,  or,  as  the  Greeks  called  them,  myths. 
If  among  these  there  are  many  fragments  of  true  tradition  (and 
we  cannot  doubt  it),  these  are  so  conformed  to  the  mythical  spirit 
of  the  rest,  as  to  make  their  separation  utterly  impossible.  The 
imaginative  Greek  temperament  has  at  least  saved  ns  from  the 
controversy  still  open  as  to  the  primeval  history  of  the  East,  by 
confounding  truth  and  fable  in  one  haze  of  poetic  fiction.  Not 
painfully  to  unravel  the  doubtful  traditions  of  the  past,  but  to 
weave  around  them  the  web  of  poetry,  so  as  to  glorify  their 
ancestors,  and  to  illustrate  their  doctrines  of  supreme  fate  and 
human  arrogance  and  impotence  in  the  fortunes  of  their  heroes, 
was  the  worthier  task  to  which  they  applied  their  brilliant  intellect. 

To  such  sources  only  can  we  trace  the  stories  of  the  foundation 
of  the  most  ancient  cities  and  kingdoms  of  Greece.  Argos  and 
Sicyon  are  said  to  have  been  cities  of  the  Pelasgians.  Inachns, 
the  son  of  Oceanus  and  Tethys,  founded  a  kingdom  at  Argos  in 
the  20th  generation*  before  the  Trojan  "War;  and  ^gialeus,  king 
of  Sicyon,  was  even  more  ancient.  The  epoch  of  Ogyges,  king  of 
Boeotia  and  Attica,  is  remarkable  for  a  great  deluge.  The  Pelas- 
gian  kingdom  in  Thessaly  is  said  to  have  lasted  150  years,  and  the 
name  of  its  founder,  Acha^ns,  which  we  have  already  seen  among 
the  sons  of  Hellen,  indicates  the  tendency  to  repeat  the  same 
names  in  the  mythical  genealogies  of  difterent  races  in  the  same 
regions.  About  the  same  time  that  Hellen  and  his  sons,  coming 
from  Phocis,  drove  the  Pelasgians  first  out  of  Thessaly  and  then 
from  the  rest  of  Greece,  except  Arcadia,  those  foreign  colonists 
began  to  arrive,  of  whom  we  have  presently  to  speak.  Long 
afterwards  Erechtheus,  a  native  chief,  established  the  Ionian 
kingdom  of  Attica  and  restored  the  worship  of  Athena. 

Among  the  traditions  which  are  perhaps  not  altogether  mythi- 
cal, are  those  relating  to  an  early  infusion  of  Oriental  elements 
into  the  population  of  Greece  ;  but  even  these  are  too  doubtful  to 
warrant  historical  conclusions.  They  point  to  Egypt,  Phoenicia, 
and  Phrygia,  as  sources  of  colonization  and  civilization.  Tims 
Ceckops,  an  Egyptian  from  Sai's,  is  said  to  have  imported  into 

*  This  would  be,  according  to  the  usual  computation,  about  B.C.  1856.  Ogyges  is 
placed  about  B.C.  1749;  the  first  appearance  of  Hellen  and  his  sons  in  Phocis,  about 
B.C.  1560 ;  Cecrops  and  Cadmus  about  the  same  time,  but  by  others  much  later,  B.C. 
1313;  Danaus  about  B.C.  1500;  Erectheus,  about  B.C.  1383;  and  Pelops,  about  B.C. 
1283.  But  the  dates  assigned  vary  greatly,  and  are  destitute  of  all  chronological 
authority. 


TRADITIONS   OP  FOREIGN  COLONIES.  311 

Attica  the  germs  of  civilization  and  religion.*  Danaiis,  the  brother 
of  King  ^gyptus,  is  represented  as  leading  the  flight  of  his  flftj 
daughters  from  the  persecution  of  his  brother's  fifty  sons,  and 
landing  on  the  shores  of  Peloponnesus,  where  he  founded  Argos, 
and  gave  the  people  the  name  of  Danai,  under  which  they  appear 
in  Homer.  We  have  already  seen  that  these  stories  arc  mentioned 
in  the  Egyptian  annals,  which  the  chronographers  profess  to  de- 
rive from  Manetho ;  but  we  can  have  no  assurance  that  they 
were  not  inventions  partly  of  Greeks  who  wished  to  find  points 
of  contact  with  Egypt,  and  partly  of  Egyptian  priests  willing  to 
humour  them  and  to  glorify  their  own  nation. 

Still,  our  want  of  the  means  to  test  these  traditions  will  hardly 
justify  their  absolute  rejection.  We  can  only  say  that  there  is  no 
sufficient  reason  for  accepting  them.f  Tlie  same  may  be  said  of  the 
story  that  Pelops,  the  son  of  Tantalus,  a  wealthy  king  of  Phrygia, 
led  a  colony  from  that  country  to  the  peninsula  which  henceforth 
received  his  name,  and  there  founded  Mycense,  the  old  capital  of 
Argolis,  where  his  descendant  Agamemnon  held  a  sort  of  supre- 
macy over  the  Achseans  of  the  Peloponnesus.  The  legend  of 
Cadmus,  the  Phoenician,  who  colonized  Bccotia,  and  founded 
Thebes,  although  even  more  imaginative  than  the  rest  in  its  de- 
tails, :}:  has  a  relation  to  well-known  facts.  The  maritime  people 
of  Phoenicia  founded  colonies  in  the  islands  of  the  J^goean,  and  may 
have  done  the  same  upon  the  mainland.  The  Greek  alphabet 
was  unquestionably  borrowed  from  the  Phoenician,  though  the 
languages  themselves  were  of  difierent  families,  the  Greek  being 
Aryan,  and  the  Phoenician  Semitic.§  It  was  probably  by  way 
of  Phoenicia  that  the  Greeks  received  the  Babylonian  system  of 
weights  and  measures,  and  perhaps  the  elements  of  other  sciences. 

*  A  probable  origin  of  thia  story  ia  found  in  the  identification  which  tlie  Greclsa 
made  of  the  Egyptian  goddess  Neith  with  their  own  Athena. 

f  Compare  chap.  vii.  pp.  112, 113. 

jj.  Such  as  the  slaying  of  the  dragon  and  the  sowing  of  bis  teeth,  from  which 
armed  men  sprung  up.  It  may  be  suggested  in  passing,  whether  the  pecuhar  cha- 
racter of  the  Boeotians  for  stolid  obstinacy  was  at  all  due  to  an  infusion  of  Semitic 
blood. 

§  The  tradition  to  this  effect  is  fully  confirmed  by  the  close  resemblance  of  the  old 
Phoenician  letters  (as  seen  on  coins)  to  the  Greek,  and  still  more  by  the  identity  of  the 
names  and  the  order  of  the  letters  in  the  Greek  alphabet  and  in  the  Hebrew,  which  is 
but  a  modification  of  the  Phoenician : — Alpha,  Aleph ;  Beta,  Beth  ;  Gamma,  Gimel ; 
Delta,  Daleth  ;  E-psilon  (i.  e.,  thin  E),  He  (unaspirated) ;  Vau  (sometimes  called  Di- 
gamma),  Vau  ;  &c.  Even  the  apparent  differences,  instead  of  being  real  discrepancies, 
assist  us  in  tracing  the  history  of  both  alphabets.  All  the  alphabets  of  modern  Europe 
have  come  from  the  Phoenician  through  the  Greek. 


312  THE  MYTHICAL  AGE  OF  GREECE.  [Chap.  XL 

These  facts  suggest  caution  as  to  a  sweeping  rejection  of  traditions 
about  Oriental  influence. 

These  mytliical  stories  reflect,  in  their  whole  conception,  so 
much  of  the  inner  life  of  the  Greek  nation,  and  the  hearty  faith 
with  which  they  were  repeated  by  the  poets  and  accepted  by  the 
people  had  so  vast  an  influence  on  Grecian  history,  that  to  pass 
over  them  in  silence  would  be  to  quench  the  spirit  of  that  history 
at  the  threshold :  for  Greek  mythology  is  the  light  by  which  the 
student  must  view  the  monuments  of  the  Grecian  heroes,  of  the 
historic  as  well  as  the  mythic  age.  The  Athenians  of  the  Pelo- 
ponnesian  war  learnt  their  first  lessons  from  Homer ;  and  their 
minds  were  moulded  by  the  poets  who  presented  before  their  eyes 
the  god-like  endurance  of  Prometheus,  the  fate  of  the  house  of 
Pclops,  the  woes  and  expiation  of  CEdipus.  Achilles  was  the 
model  proposed  to  himself  by  Alexander. 

But  it  is  not  in  the  province  of  the  historian  to  relate  these 
legends  at  length,  unless  he  can  affbrd  the  space  to  arrange  and 
analyse  them, — a  work  which  has  been  done  by  the  master  hand 
of  Mr.  Grote.*  Least  of  all  is  it  allowable  to  put  the  poet's  crea- 
tions on  the  Procrustean  bed  of  rationalistic  criticism,  lopping 
ofl;'  what  seems  improbable,  and  stretching  out  the  fancied  frag- 
ments of  true  tradition,  and  all  for  the  sake  of  "  spoiling  a  good 
poem,  without  making  a  good  history."  All  that  we  can  or 
ought  to  attempt  is  a  brief  outline  of  those  principal  legends 
which  most  show  the  thought  and  spirit  of  the  Hellenic  nation, 
and  give  some  hints  of  the  actual  state  of  society,  before  the  age 
of  certain  history. 

There  are  various  ways  in  which  these  legends  may  be  viewed. 
They  were  framed  to  minister  to  the  religious,  the  heroic,  the 
national,  and  the  historic  spirit  in  a  people  whose  sense  of  beauty 
also  demanded  that  all  should  be  offered  them  in  the  guise  of 
poetry.  How  heaven  and  earth  sprung  from  chaos, — how  succes- 
sive dynasties  of  gods  supplanted  one  another,  crushed  the  powers 
of  confusion  and  destruction,  and  ruled  over  their  favourite  cities, 
— how  from  them  sprung  a  race  of  demigods,  who  cleared  the  earth 
of  savage  monsters  and  savage  men,  founded  the  great  families 
and  kingdoms  of  Greece,  and  carried  their  arms  to  distant  shores, — 
were  the  first  subjects  of  mythic  poetry.  The  earliest  bards  began 
by  reciting  the  race  and  deeds  of  the  heroic  founders  of  the  chief 

*  History  of  Greece,  part  i.,  Legendary  Greece.  Charming  versions  of  many  of 
the  legends,  fit  for  elder  as  well  as  young  readers,  have  been  published  by  Niebuhr, 
Professor  Kingslev,  and  Mr.  Cox. 


LEGENDS  OP  THE  GODS.  313 

houses,  for  the  honour  and  pleasure  of  the  kings  and  nobles  who 
claimed  them  as  ancestors,  only  incidentally  touching  on  religious 
and  national  traditions.  This  is  the  stage  we  see  in  the  Homeric 
poems,  which  it  must  never  be  forgotten  belong  essentially  to  the 
species  of  ballad  poetry."^  "Writers  addressing  themselves  to  a 
more  general  feeling  of  curiosity,  and  with  a  more  didactic  pur- 
pose, like  Hesiod,  attempted  a  consecutive  account  of  the  origin 
of  gods  and  men.  Lastly,  the  love  of  order  and  completeness 
tempted  poets  of  a  far  inferior  order  to  fill  up  the  gaps  and  string 
the  whole  together  into  that  series  of  legends,  extending  from  the 
beginning  of  the  heaven  and  earth  to  the  end  of  the  mythic 
period,  which  is  called  the  Epic  Cycle.  The  last  class  of  compo- 
sitions have  deservedly  perished,  all  except  a  few  fragments ;  f 
but  much  of  their  substance  is  to  be  found  in  the  prose  mythol- 
ogies. Their  one  great  use  was  to  supply  the  Attic  tragedians 
with  the  materials  for  those  unrivalled  dramas  which  rekindled 
the  spirit  of  Greek  mythology,  much  as  the  old  chroniclers  and 
early  dramatists  provided  Shakspeare  with. the  fragments  which 
he  built  up  into  such  works  as  Lear  and  Macbeth. 

The  series  of  legends  begins  with  the  Theogony,  or  origin  of  the 
gods.  The  main  elements  of  the  Greek  religious  system  have 
already  been  mentioned.  The  whole  Hellenic  race  recognised 
the  twelve  great  gods,  of  whom  the  chief  was  Jove, "  the  father 
of  gods  and  men."  Li  the  earliest  times  he  was  worshipped  and  his 
oracle  consulted  at  Dodona  in  Epirus,  which  seems  to  have  been 
the  sanctuary  of  the  Pelasgians.  The  Hellenes  enthroned  him  on 
Mount  Olympus,  and  their  leading  race,  the  ^olians,  established 
near  Elis  that  sanctuary  of  the  Olympian  Jove  which  became  the 
centre  of  unity  for  the  whole  nation.  Other  seats  of  his  worship 
are  found  in  Crete,  at  Mount  Ida ;  and  among  the  Thracian  tribes 
of  Mysia,  where  there  was  also  an  Ida  overlooking  Troy,  and  where 
the  great  range  which  skirts  the  northern  shores  of  Asia  Minor  was 
called  Olympus.  The  Cretan  form  of  religion  influenced  that  of 
Greece  at  a  very  early  period.  The  other  deities  were  specially 
honoured  by  particular  races  :  Apollo  by  the  Dorians  ;  Poseidon, 
Hera,  and  Athena,  by  the  lonians.     In  his  prophetic  capacity, 

*  Homer'8  Hexameter  is  essentially  a  ballad  metre.  Each  line  forms  a  ballad 
couplet,  as  would  be  at  once  seen  if  the  sharp  bold  ring  of  the  verse  were  not  stifled  in 
our  common  reading,  and  that  by  a  double  process — an  Anglicized  perversion  of  Virgil's 
cold  and  solemn  imitation. 

f  Attempts  were  made  long  after  to  replace  them  by  the  Alexandrian  imitator 
under  the  Ptolemies. 


314  THE  MYTHICAL  AGE  OF  GREECE.  [Chap.  XL 

Apollo  was  sought  not  only  by  all  the  Greeks,  but  by  foreign  nationa 
too,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  example  of  the  Lydian  kings.  His 
fabled  birthplace  was  at  Delos,  the  central  island  of  the  JEgsean 
and  the  navel  of  the  world  ;  but  his  great  oracle  was  at  Pytho,  at 
the  foot  of  Mount  Parnassus,  better  known  by  the  later  name  of 
Delphi,  which  it  derived  from  the  people  who  held  it.  Much 
discussion  might  have  been  spared  concerning  the  presence  of  a 
supernatural  power  in  the  Greek  oracles,  if  writers  had  investigated 
the  alleged  facts,  instead  of  assuming  their  truth.  There  is  no  proof 
of  anything  more  than  an  ingenious  system  of  priestcraft,  founded 
on  the  trust  of  the  people  in  their  god,  making  use  of  the  frenzied 
utterances  of  female  excitation,  and  carefully  keeping  on  the  safe 
side  by  the  studied  ambiguity  of  the  verses  into  which  they  threw 
the  responses.  In  Apollo's  character  as  the  sun-god,  in  that  of 
his  sister  Artemis  as  the  moon,  and  still  more  in  the  worship  of 
Aphrodite  (Venus),  we  see  points  of  possible  connection  with  the 
reliffion  of  the  East.  But  there  were  other  and  later  elements 
undoubtedly  imported  from  that  quarter,  which  added  to  the  ideal 
impersonations  of  the  pure  Greek  religion  secret  rites  and  enthu- 
siastic orgies.  Such  were  the  Eleusinian  and  Dionysiac  mysteries, 
of  which  the  Orphic  were  a  modification.  What  peculiar  doctrines 
were  taught  to  the  initiated  in  the  secret  celebration  of  these 
mysteries,  is  too  wide  and  doubtful  a  question  for  our  present 
purpose  ;  but  the  open  celebration  of  the  Dionysiac  worship  had 
the  most  powerful  influence  on  the  Greek  mind.  In  his  joyous 
and  enthusiastic  festivals,  the  god,  not  only  of  mirth  and  wine, 
but  of  the  productive  powers  of  nature,  was  celebrated  in  lolly 
hymns,  which  gave  birth  to  Tragedy  ;  while  the  unrestrained  jovi- 
ality of  his  worshippers,  at  the  vintage  in  the  villages,  supplied 
the  germ  of  Comedy. 

As  in  every  system  of  ancient  mythology,  the  first  benefactors 
and  rulers  of  men  were  the  offspring  of  the  gods.  Their  exploits 
and  suflerings  occupy  the  Heroic  Age  of  Greece.  First  come  those 
who  performed  great  works  for  the  benefit  of  their  country :  the  Ar- 
give  Hercules,  the  national  hero  of  Greece,  who,  while  submitting 
,to  serve  a  jealous  tyrant,  subdued  physical  and  moral  evil,  brought 
the  choicest  gifts  from  the  furthest  quarters  of  the  world,  and, 
having  expiated  by  suffering  the  weakness  which  marred  his 
strength,*  was  received  among  the  gods  above :  Theseus,  the 
national  hero  of  Attica,  who  cleared  the  roads  of  savage  robbers, 

•  Here  the  moral  significance  of  the  legend  reminds  us  irresistibly  of  Samson. 


THE   CHIEF  HEROIC   LEGENDS.  315 

redeemed  his  country  by  self-devotion  from  foreign  bondage,  and 
organized  her  into  a  powerful  state  :  Minos,  the  Cretan  legislator, 
who  founded  a  maritime  empire,  and  cleared  the  sea  of  pirates. 
It  is  vain,  at  least  with  our  present  knowledge,  to  attempt  to 
discover  the  historical  traditions  which  seem  to  be  bound  up  in  the 
legends  of  the  two  latter. 

In  the  age  of  these  heroes  tradition  placed  the  first  united  enter- 
prize  of  the  Greeks,  the  Argonautic  expedition  to  the  distant  land 
of  Ma.  (believed  by  the  later  Greeks  to  be  Colchis,  on  the  eastern 
coast  of  the  Black  Sea)  in  search  of  the  golden  fleece,  the  price  of 
Jason's  restoration  to  his  throne  in  Thessaly.*  Both  Hercules 
and  Theseus  took  part  in  the  voyage,  which  gave  rise  to  several 
collateral  legends,  and  among  them  to  the  grand  story  of  Medea. 
It  is  interesting  to  observe  that  Jason,  the  leader  of  the  Argo- 
nautic expedition,  is  an  ^olid  of  Thessaly  ;  but  a  generation  or 
two  later  the  supremacy  of  the  Greeks  is  with  the  Achaean  house 
of  Atreus  in  the  Peloponnesus. 

In  the  same  and  the  following  generation  is  placed  the  legend 
of  the  royal  house  of  Tliebes,  one  of  the  finest  in  itself,  and  the 
inspiring  source  of  the  very  noblest  works  of  Greek  dramatic  art, 
the  "  King  Q^ldipus  "  and  "  (Edipus  at  Colonus  "  of  Sophocles, 
and  the  "  Seven  against  Thebes  "  of  -^schylus.  We  will  take  it 
as  a  specimen  of  the  spirit  which  pervades  these  heroic  legends. 

Laius,  king  of  Thebes,  having  been  warned  by  an  oracle  that  he 
should  be  killed  by  his  son,  caused  him  to  be  exposed  on  Mount 
Cithaeron  as  soon  as  he  was  bom.  The  infant  was  saved  by  a 
herdsman  of  Polybus,  king  of  Corinth,  and  brought  up  as  the 
king's  son.  When  he  was  grown  up,  the  taunts  of  his  comrades 
respecting  his  birth  drove  him  to  consult  the  Delphic  oracle. 
Horrorstiiick  at  hearing  that  he  should  kill  his  father  and  marry 
his  mother,  he  resolved  never  to  return  to  Corinth,  and  chose 
Thebes  for  his  new  abode.  On  the  road  he  met  Laius  in  a  narrow 
pass,  and,  provoked  by  the  insolence  of  the  king's  attendants,  he 
slew  both  them  and  him  with  his  ox-goad,  unknowing  that  he 
thus  fulfilled  the  first  part  of  the  oracle.     Arriving  at  Thebes,  he 

*  The  chronographers  place  the  Argonautic  expedition  about  b.c.  1225. 

How  little  these  legends  will  bear  historic  criticism,  is  seen  by  comparing  the  story, 
that  the  Argo  was  the  first  ship  that  ever  attempted  the  sea,  with  the  contemporary 
establishment  of  a  great  naval  power  by  Minos.  We  have  already  seen  the  Egyptians 
engaged  in  sea-fights  with  the  Khairetana  (Cretans),  at  what,  if  the  comparative 
chronology  could  be  trusted,  would  be  just  the  same  time  (chap.  vii.  p.  123).  It  may 
be  well  to  observe  that  the  mythical  genealogies  give  no  basis  whatever  for  chronological 
computation. 


316  THE  MYTHICAL  AGE   OF   GREECE.  [Chap.  XI. 

found  the  city  in  the  extremity  of  despair.  A  monster,  called  the 
Sphinx,  had  propounded  a  riddle  to  the  Thebans,  and  devoured  a 
man  each  day  till  it  should  be  answered.*  Creon,  the  brother  of 
the  queen  Jocasta,  ruling  in  place  of  the  murdered  king,  had 
promised  the  crown  and  the  queen's  hand  to  the  deliverer  of  the 
city.  (Edipus  won  the  prize,  and  thus  completed  the  crime  fore- 
told by  the  oracle.  His  two  sons  and  daughters  by  Jocasta 
were  grown  up,  when  a  pestilence  devastated  the  city,  and  an  oracle 
demanded  the  banishment  of  the  murderer  of  Laius.  The  eager 
inquiries  of  OEdipus,  in  spite  of  the  warnings  of  the  blind  seer 
Teiresias,  unveil  the  truth  :  Jocasta  hangs  herself  in  her  nuj^tial 
chamber :  (Edipus  puts  out  his  eyes,  that  he  may  never  again 
see  the  light  polluted  by  his  crimes  ;  his  two  sons  drive  him  into 
exile,  and  he  imprecates  a  curse  on  them  as  he  departs.  Guided 
by  his  dutiful  daughter  Antigone,  he  finds  a  resting-place  at  the 
village  of  Colonus,  near  Athens,  in  a  grove  sacred  to  the  Eume- 
nides,  the  goddesses  who  avenged  such  crimes  as  his.  Here  he 
received  the  rites  of  expiation  at  the  hands  of  Theseus ;  and,  sum- 
moned thrice  by  a  voice  from  the  recesses  of  the  grove,  he  departed 
by  a  calm  and  painless  death  in  extreme  old  age — the  "  eutha- 
nasia" which  the  Greeks  regard  as  the  happiest  end  of  life.  The 
like  end  was  granted  to  the  poet  Sophocles,  himself  a  native  of 
Colonus,  who  celebrated  the  fate  of  (Edipus  in  his  two  immortal 
tragedies. 

In  this  story  we  see  the  tragic  spirit  of  the  Greek  heroic  legends. 
A  man's  arrogance  brings  down  the  "  Ate  " — a  compound  of  in- 
fatuation, guilt,  and  punishment,  which  haunts  his  house  from 
generation  to  generation.  Crime  is  heaped  on  crime,  horror  on 
horror,  woe  on  woe,  without  entirely  quenching  the  noble  spirit 
which  the  heroes  derived  from  their  divine  progenitors.  At  length 
the  curse  is  fulfilled,  the  expiation  is  accomplished,  and  the  tragedy 
of  fear  and  pity  ends  with  what  Aristotle  describes  as  the  chief 
purpose  of  the  poet — "  \h.e  purification  of  such  passions." 

But  the  curse  removed  from  (Edipus  remained  upon  his  sons. 
Their  agreement  to  share  the  royal  authority  ends  in  the  usur- 
pation of  Eteocles,  who  expels  his  brother  PoljTiices.  The  return 
of  the  latter,  supported  by  Adrastus,  king  of  Argos,  and  five  other 
chieftains,  fonns  the  expedition  of  the  "  Seven  against  Thebes." 
Their  attack  on  the  city   is  made  in  a  spirit  of  impious  arrogance 

*  How  far  this  is  a  point  of  contact  with  Egypt,  is  a  riddle  much  harder  than 
that  of  the  Sphinx  herself.  The  Theban  sphinx  was  female ;  the  Egyptian  sphinx  is 
always  male. 


THE  TROJAN  WAR.  317 

which  is  punished  by  their  defeat  and  death.  Eteocles  and 
Polynices  fall  by  each  other's  hands ;  and  Adrastus  (the  Inevi- 
table)* alone  escapes,  to  show  that  the  curse  is  not  yet  accom- 
plished. The  courageous  disobedience  of  Antigone  to  the  edict  of 
Creon  forbidding  the  burial  of  Polynices  involves  her  and  her 
lover  Haemon,  the  son  of  Creon,  in  the  general  destruction.  At 
length,  in  the  following  generation,  the  "  Epigoni  "  {Descendants) 
repeat  tlie  expedition  of  their  fathers  against  Thebes  ;  and  tlie 
doomed  city  is  taken,  and  razed  to  the  ground. 

These  Epigoni  appear  again,  with  the  chieftains  of  every  other 
part  of  Greece,  as  far  west  as  the  island  of  Ithaca,f  in  the  War  of 
Troy,  the  crowning  legend  of  the  heroic  age.  The  well-known  story, 
and  the  ten  years'  wanderings  of  the  hero  of  many  devices,  who  saw 
the  cities  and  learnt  the  ways  of  many  men,  and  suffered  much  by 
land  and  sea,  need  not  be  repeated.  The  questions,  historical, 
topographical,  and  literary,  arising  out  of  it,  are  too  wide  to  be 
discussed  here.  We  believe  that  there  was  a  Troy,  and  that  there 
was  a  Homer  ;  but  how  much  of  the  legend  applies  to  the  former, 
and  how  much  of  the  Homeric  poems  belongs  to  the  latter,  are 
questions  to  be  studied  afresh  by  every  scholar,  and  not  to  be 
expounded  to  any  but  real  students  of  classical  antiquity.  It  is 
enough  to  say,  as  to  the  event,  that  some  great  collision  must 
have  taken  place  between  the  Greeks  and  the  kindred  race  who 
had  founded  a  great  kingdom  on  the  opposite  coast,  which  com- 
bined the  Greek  nation  in  a  common  effort,  and  involved  a  reac- 
tion that  unsettled  most  of  the  Achaean  and  ^^olian  states.:}: 

And  as  to  the  poet — the  reader  need  not  fear  a  repetition  of 
the  long  controversy,  from  the  first  assault  of  Wolf,  to  Mr.  Grote's 
most  ingenious  discovery  of  the  germ  of  the  Iliad  in  an  original 
"  Achilleid."  Rather  let  us  be  content  to  know  that  such  legends 
as  those  at  which  we  have  now  glanced  were  sung  at  the  courts  of 
the  Achaean  and  ^olian  princes,  whose  subjects,  assembled  in  the 
colonnade  before  the  palace,  might  hear  them  too,  by  bards,  of 
whom  the  Homeric  poems  themselves  give  us  a  picture  in  Demod- 
ocus  at  the  Court  of  Alcinous.  We  cannot  doubt  that  such  a 
bard,  whose  perfect  art  (combined  with  some  internal  proofs) 

*  Comp.  chap.  x.  p.  258. 

f  The  smallest  of  the  seven  "  Ionian  Islands." 

%  We  cannot  stay  to  relate  the  long  story  of  the  house  of  Pelops,  its  ancient  crimes, 
ihe  murders  of  Agamemnon  and  Clytemnestra,  and  the  expiation  of  Orestes — a 
legend  as  striking  in  itself,  and  as  grandly  treated  by  the  tragedians,  as  the  story  of 
Thebes. 


ai8.  THE  MYTHICAL  AGE   OF   GREECE.  [Chap.  XI. 

confirms  the  story  of  liis  origin  from  Asiatic  Greece,  the  earliest 
Hellenic  seat  of  letters,  wandered,  like  the  minstrels  of  every  age 
and  country  that  has  had  bold  exploits  to  tell  of  and  men  worthy 
to  hear  them,  from  court  to  court  of  the  descendants  of  the 
heroes  who  fought  at  Troy,  receiving  special  honour  at  those 
which  he  has  repaid  with  special  fame,  Ithaca,  Sparta,  Pylos. 
Whether  but  one  such,  or  whether  more,  composed  the  poems 
we  possess,  matters  but  little,  so  long  as  we  pay  to  the  name  of 
Homer  the  tribute  due  to  that  which,  with  one  sacred  exception, 
is  the  choicest,  as  well  as  the  earliest  fruit  of  the  human  intellect- 
handed  down  to  us,  however  imperfectly,  first  by  the  memory  of 
reciters,  and  then  by  the  enduring  medium  of  letters,  llius  does 
the  mythical  age  of  Greece  bring  us  down  at  last  to  an  liistoric 
fact  the  most  real,  the  most  abiding,  the  most  fruitful,  in  the 
secular  history  of  the  world — the  existence  of  such  works  as  the 
Iliad  and  Odyssey,  for  our  use  in  training  our  minds  to  the  rich- 
est graces  of  imagination.  Those  other  facts  which  a4*e  clearly 
deducible  from  these  poems  concerning  the  political  and  social 
state  of  the  Greeks  of  the  heroic  age,  we  reserve  for  the  next 
chapter,  as  they  belong  to  history.* 

*  The  traditional  dates  for  the  fall  of  Troy  are  various.  The  two  most  commonly 
accepted  are  b.c.  1184  and  B.C.  1127;  but  they  depend  on  backward  computationa 
resting  on  uncertain  data. 


TRANSITION   FROM  LEGEND   TO   HISTORY.  319 

CHAPTER  XII. 


THE    HELLENIC    STATES    AND    COLONIES,    FROM   THE 
EARLIEST    HISTORIC   RECORDS  TO  B.C.   500. 


Clime  of  the  unforgotten  brave ! 
Whose  land,  from  plain  to  mountain  cave, 
Was  Freedom's  home,  or  Glory's  grave  ! 
Shrine  of  the  mighty ! — Btron. 

tONDITION  OF  GREECE  IS  THE  HEROIC  AGE — POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  CHANGES  AFTER  THE  TROJAN 
WAR — DORIAK  INVASION  OF  PELOPONNESCS — ACH^ANS  AND  lONIANS  DISPLACED — COLONIES 
IN  ASIA  MINOR,  IONIAN,  ^OLIAN,  AND  DORIAN — CRETE — EXTENSION  OF  THE  DORIAN  AND 
IONIAN  RACES— HISTORICAL  EPOCH  OF  THE  FIRST  OLYMPIAD,  B.C.  776 — THE  GREEK  NATION 
AS  A  WHOLE — THE  AMPHICTTONIES  AND  AMPHICTYONIC  COUNCIL — THE  GREAT  FESTIVALS — 
OLYMPIC  GAMES— ABSENCE  OF  POLITICAL  UNITY — THE  SEPARATE  STATES  OF  GREECE — ARGOS, 
UNDER  PHEIDON — SPARTA  AND  THE  INSTITUTIONS  OF  LYCURGUS— CONQUEST  OF  LACOMA  AND 
MESSENIA — LACEDEMONIAN  SUPREMACY  IN  PELOPONNESUS — THE  TYRANTS  IN  GREECE  AND 
THE  COLONIES — EARLY  HISTORY  OF  ATTICA — THESEUS — CODRUS — ABOLITION  OP  ROYALTY — 
GOVERNMENT  BY  ARCHONS — THE  SENATE  OF  AREOPAGUS — LEGISLATION  OP  DrAcO— CYLON 
AND  THE  ALCMEONIDS — LEGISLATION  OF  SOLON— USURPATION  OF  PISISTRATUS — EXPULSION 
OF  THE   FAMILY — REFORMS   OF   CLEISTHENES — WARS  WITH   SPARTA,  THEBES,  AND  CHALCIS — 

THE  ATHENIAN  DEMOCRACY  FIRLMY  ESTABLISHED OTHER  STATES  OF  GREECE — COLONIES — IN 

THE  COUNTRIES  NORTH  OP  GREECE— IN  ASIA — IN  SICILY  AND  ITALY — IN  GAUL  AND  SPAIN — IN 
AFRICA— SURVEY  OF  HELLAS  AT  THK  EPOCH  OF  THE  PERSIAN  WARS — PROGRESS  OF  LITERA- 
TURE, PHILOSOPHY,  AND  ART. 

At  the  close  of  the  mythical  age,  Mr.  Grote  recognises  a  period 
of  intermediate  darkness  before  the  dawn  of  historical  Greece : 
but  even  before  we  reach  the  border  land  between  legend  and 
true  history,  we  find  some  things  in  the  former  that  belong 
to  the  province  of  the  latter.  The  external  events,  though 
related  as  facts,  are  for  us  mere  legends  ;  but  they  enclose  a 
kernel  of  real  facts  relating  to  the  political  and  social  state  of  the 
heroic  age.  The  free  states  of  Greece  form  a  spectacle  altogether 
different  from  the  great  monarchies  of  the  East.  Partly  from 
essential  differences  of  character,  but  chiefly,  it  would  seem,  from 
the  physical  causes  which  divided  them  into  small  territories,  each 
lying  compactly  about  its  own  city,  the  Greeks  resisted  the  com- 
pressing force  of  empire.  Hence,  while  in  Asia  the  usurping 
power  of  some  great  conqueror  crushed  the  primitive  patriarchal 
constitution  of  society,  in  Greece  that  constitution  passed,  by  a 
not  unnatural  transition,  into  the  royalty  of  the  heads  of  certain 
families,  who  are  but  the  first  among  the  whole  body  of  nobles 
and  chieftains.  These,  as  well  as  the  supreme  ruler  of  the  state, 
are  called  by  Homer  kings ;  and,  like  him,  they  trace  their 
lineage  to  the  gods,  and  are  literally 

"  Kings  born  of  Jove,  who  them  this  honour  gave." 


320  THE  HELLENIC   STATES  AND   COLONIES.     [Chap.  XH. 

They  form  the  council  of  the  king,  but  witli  no  power  to  con- 
trol his  acts,  except  by  their  advice.  In  this  council,  however, 
we  see  the  germ  of  an  oligarchic  constitution,  for  the  king  could 
only  retain  his  ascendancy  by  qualities  of  body  and  mind  answer- 
ing to  his  divine  lineage.  Nor  was  the  popular  element  alto- 
gether absent.  The  king  not  only  administered  justice  in  public, 
with  or  without  his  nobles  for  assessors,  but  he  presided  among 
them  in  full  council  in  the  market-place  or  public  square,*  wdiere 
measures  were  debated  before  the  whole  body  of  the  citizens. 
But  tliese  had  neither  voice  nor  vote.  In  such  an  assembly,  in 
the  camp  before  Troy,  Ulysses  puts  down  every  attempt  at  pop- 
ular oratory  with  the  words  so  often  repeated  since  : — 

"Bad  is  the  rule  of  many ;  let  there  be 
One  lord,  one  king,  to  whom  Jove  gave  the  sway ;  " 

and  when  Thersites  persists  in  speaking,  he  sends  him  out  writh- 
ing beneath  the  blows  of  his  sceptre.  But  the  very  delineation  of 
such  a  scene,  and  the  emphasis  with  which  Homer  lays  down  his 
monarchical  doctrine,  are  proofs  that  something  of  the  spirit 
which  produced  the  democracies  of  later  times  was  already  at 
work  among  the  free  citizens.  They  were  for  the  most  part  an 
independent  body  of  proprietors,  cultivating  their  own  land  ;  but 
there  was  an  exceptional  class,  who  were  reduced  by  the  loss  of 
their  property  to  work  for  hire  on  the  farms  of  others.f  The 
existence  of  slavery  prevented  the  poorest  class  of  freemen  from 
sinking  lower  still.  Slaves  were,  however,  found  only  in  the 
palaces  of  the  kings  and  nobles  ; — "  captives  taken  by  the  spear," 
themselves  often  of  royal  or  noble  birth,  wives  and  childi'en  of 
slain  heroes.  Their  hapless  lot,  so  pathetically  described  by 
Homer,  consisted  in  their  reverse  of  fortune,  rather  than  in  those 
peculiar  hardships  which  were  the  curse  of  slavery  in  the  East, 
and  which  have  been  so  cruelly  inflicted,  in  all  ages,  upon  races 
supposed  to  be  inferior  to  their  masters. 

It  is  needful  to  bear  in  mind  the  difference  between  the  Grecian 
states  and  those  of  modem  times.  While  the  latter  generally 
embrace  extensive  countries,  the  former  were  usually  composed  of 
single  cities,  each  with  the  land  surrounding  it  to  a  very  moderate 
distance.  Thus  in  the  small  districts  afterwards  called  Argolis,  we 
find  Diomed  king  of  Argos,  while  Agamemnon  rules  at  MycenoB.:|: 

*  The  Greek  word  Agora,  which  denotes  a  place  of  assembly,  describes  the  open 
place  in  the  midst  of  the  city,  which  was  used  for  all  public  purposes, 
f  This  lowest  class  of  freemen  were  called  Tlietes. 
X  Hence  the  twofold  sense  of  the  Greek  word  polia  (city),  from  which  we  borrow 


SOCIAL   STATE   OF   THE   HEROIC   AGE.  321 

Hence  the  possibility  of  assembling  all  the  citizens  in  the  agora 
"witli  the  king  and  nobles,  and  of  working  the  republics  of  later 
times  without  the  device  of  representation.  This  limited  extent 
of  the  state  too,  combined  with  the  open-air  life  of  the  Greeks  in 
their  delicious  climate,  had  the  greatest  influence  on  their  social 
life.  Meeting  daily  in  the  agora,  the  citizens  .were  personally 
known  to  one  another,  and  their  thoughts  and  views  were  ex- 
changed as  freely  as  the  current  coin  of  the  market.  Their  life  at 
home  preserved  a  high  degree  of  the  patriarchal  order  and  sim- 
plicity. The  father's  authority  was  the  real  and  supreme  law ; 
his  blessing  was  sought  like  that  of  Jacob  by  his  children  ;  and 
the  curse  of  (Edipus  was  the  direst  of  the  woes  that  befell  his 
sons.  The  wife  held  her  due  place  of  honour,  though  she  was  pur- 
chased from  her  parents  with  costly  gifts,  as  was  the  custom  also 
among  the  Hebrews.  The  seclusion  of  the  women  in  their  separate 
apartments*  was  a  later  usage,  borrowed  from  the  Asiatic  Greeks. 
They  were  equally  in  their  own  sphere,  when  directing  their 
maidens  in  private  at  the  spinning-wheel  and  loom,  or  coming 
forth  to  exercise  that  hospitality  which  was  a  chief  grace  of  the 
heroic  age.  The  stranger  guest  was  freely  welcomed,  and  if  he  came 
as  a  suppliant,  it  was  a  sacred  duty  to  receive  him.  ISTot  till  he  was 
refreshed  with  the  bath  and  banquet,  was  any  inquiry  made  about 
his  name  or  object.  Ample  room  was  found  for  lodging  guests 
under  the  colonnade  surrounding  the  front  court  of  the  palace, 
which  was  the  most  agreeable  sleeping-place  in  a  Grecian  night, 
though  it  bore  from  its  use  during  the  day  the  epithet  of  "  very 
noisy."  The  banquet  was  plentiful,  but  simple,  free  from  all 
intemperance,  and  enlivened  by  the  strains  of  the  bard,  reciting 
the  loves  of  the  gods,  or  the  martial  deeds  of  heroes.  It  is  only  by 
reading  Homer  that  we  can  form  to  ourselves  a  picture  of  the 
simple  life  led  even  by  the  kings,  or,  on  the  other  hand,  of  the 
ferocity  in  war,  the  frequent  homicides,  and  the  unrestrained  plun- 
dering by  land  and  sea,  which  allowed  no  security  but  to  the  strong. 
Great  progress  had  been  made  in  the  arts  and  appliances  of 
Kfe.  The  heroic  age  was  one  of  "  well-built  cities,"  palaces,  and 
temples.  Of  its  massive  architecture  some  idea  may  be  obtained 
from  the  ruins  of  Tiryns  and  Mycense.f    The  "  Lion  Gate  "  of  the 

our  leading  political  terms.     It  is  only  iu  a  figurative  sense  that  we  speak  of  a  citizen 
of  America,  but  the  Greek  was  literally  a  citizen  of  his  state. 

*  The  Gynceceum,  or  tcome7i's  house. 

\  The  so-called  "  Treasury  of  Atreus"  5s  now  conjectured  to  be  the  tomb  of  Aga- 
memnon. 

VOL.  I. — 21      , 


323  THE   HELLENIC   STATES  AND   COLONTES.     [Chap,  XH. 

latter  shows  one  of  the  earliest  specimens  of  Greek  sculpture  :  and 
in  the  former  there  is  a  long  gallery,  exhibiting  the  first  approach 
to  the  arch,  its  form  being  cut  in  the  face  of  the  huge  «tones 
wliich  overliang  and  meet  one  another  at  the  summit.*  At  the 
site  of  Orchomenus,  in  Boeotia,  may  be  seen  the  immense  tunnels 
_  constructed  to  carry  off  the  superfluous  waters  of  the  lake  Copais. 
A  passing  allusion  may  suffice  for  the  war-chariots  and  ships,  the 
arms  of  bronze  and  sometimes  of  iron  (though  the  latter  metal 
was  still  rare),  wrought  with  that  knowledge  of  art  which  is  dis- 
played in  Homer's  description  of  the  shield  of  Achilles.  That 
commerce  was  not  unknown  to  the  Greeks,  is  shown  by  the 
abundance  of  gold  and  silver  which  adorned  the  palaces  of  the 
kings  ;  while  the  mention  of  Sidonian  garments  and  of  tin  proves 
that  their  chief  traffic  was  with  Phoenicia.  This  commerce 
was,  indeed,  conducted  by  the  Phoenicians,  not  by  the  Greeks, 
who  were  as  yet  ignorant  of  the  use  of  coined  money.  It  was 
from  the  stories  of  their  voyages — the  dangers  of  whicli  we  have 
reason  to  believe  they  purposely  exaggerated,  to  deter  rival 
adventurers — that  Homer  obtained  the  fables  of  tlie  Cyclops,  the 
Sirens,  and  the  Lotus-eaters,  of  Circe,  of  Scylla  and  Charybdis, 
and  of  the  far-distant  island  of  Calypso,  the  plains  of  Elysium 
and  the  abodes  of  the  dead,  by  the  stream  of  the  earth-encircling 
river  Ocean. 

The  legends  respecting  the  return  of  the  heroes  from  the  Trojan 
War — the  murder  of  some  by  usurpers — the  long  wanderings  of 
others — and  the  exile  of  not  a  few,  to  found  new  cities  in  Italy,f 
Crete,  and  other  shores  of  the  Mediterranean — point  to  a  period  of 
general  disturbance  and  movement  among  the  old  Acha?an  and 
-<^olian  states.  A  complete  alteration  was  made  in  the  distribu- 
tion of  the  four  Greek  races  over  the  peninsula  ;  and  great  changes 
were  effected  in  the  constitution  of  the  several  states.  Meanwhile 
the  islands  of  the  ^gsean  Sea  were  occupied,  and  colonies  were 
sent  out  far  and  wide  over  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean.  In 
the  west  of  Asia  Minor  especially,  the  Greek  colonies  settled 
in  such  force  as  to  occupy  the  whole  coast  of  Mysia,  Lydia,  and 
Caria,  which  received  new  names  from  the  races  that  formed  the 

*  This  is  called  the  false  arch.  The  true  arch  was  not  yet  known  to  the  Greeks, 
who,  indeed,  never  used  it  in  their  architecture  ;  but  it  is  found  in  the  earliest  Roman 
remains,  as  in  the  Cloaca  Maxima;  and  it  was  perfectly  familiar  to  the  Assyrians. 
Splendid  examples  are  found  at  Ximrud  (Layard's  A^ineveh  and  Babylon,  pp. 
162-165). 

•j-  We  say  nothing  of  the  migrations  of  the  Trojans  under  Evander  and  ^neas,  as 
they  are  purely  Italian  legends. 


DORIAN  INVASION   OF  PELOPONNESUS.  323 

settlements, — ^olis  on  the  north,  Ionia  in  tlie  centre,  and  Doris 
in  the  south. 

These  results  are  well  ascertained  from  the  state  in  which  we 
find  Greece  and  her  colonies  at  the  beginning  of  the  historic 
period.  But  of  tlie  process  itself,  we  have  only  doubtful  tradi- 
tions, in  which  the  mythical  element  still  predominates.  The 
first  great  fact  to  be  accounted  for  is  the  Dorian  conqnest  of  the 
greater  part  of  Peloponnesns. 

That  peninsula  was  then  held,  in  the  manner  already  described, 
by  the  Achaeans  in  the  east  and  south,  the  ^olians  in  the  west, 
the  lonians  on  the  north  coast,  and  the  Arcadian  Pelasgians  in  the 
centre.*  The  two  latter  races  are  as  yet  of  no  political  im2)ortance. 
The  ^^olians  had  the  powerful  kingdom  of  Pylos  ;  while  those  of 
Argos,  Sparta,  and  Corinth  held  the  precedence  over  the  other 
Achfiean  kingdoms.  In  the  legend  of  Hercules,  the  hero  is  de- 
prived of  his  inheritance  of  the  Argive  kingdom  by  Eurystheus. 
The  Heracleidfe,  his  descendants,  made  several  efforts  to  recover 
their  birthright,  till  their  leader,  Hyllus,  the  son  of  Hercules,  fell 
in  single  combat  with  the  chieftain  of  Tegea.f  They  then  bound 
themselves  not  to  renew  the  attempt  for  a  hundred  years.  At  the 
end  of  that  period,  the  great  grand-sons  of  Hyllus,  Temenus,  Cres- 
phontes,  and  Aristodemus,  obtained  the  aid  of  the  Dorians,  who 
were  bound  by  an  old  obligation  for  services  rendered  by  Hercules. 
They  crossed  the  narrow  mouth  of  the  Corinthian  Gulf  from  the 
port  of  Kaupactus,:j:  guided  by  Oxylus,  king  of  the  J^tolians. 
One  decisive  victory  over  Tisamenus,  the  grandson  of  Agamemnon, 
made  them  masters  of  the  Achaean  kingdoms  of  Peloponnesus. 
Their  conquests  were  divided  into  three  lots ;  the  kingdoms  of 
Argos  and  Sparta,  and  the  territory  of  Messenia,  which  seems  to 
have  been  a  dependency  of  the  ^olian  kingdom  of  Pylos.  Argos 
fell  by  lot  to  Temenus,  Messenia  to  Cresphontes,  and  Spai-ta  to 
the  twin  sons  of  Aristodemus,  who  had  himself  been  killed  by 
lightning  at  Naupactas.  It  was  not  till  the  following  generation 
that  Corinth  was  conquered  by  the  Dorians  under  an  Heraclid 
prince,  who  had  not  taken  ])art  in  the  first  invasion.  The  con- 
querors gradually  subdued  most  of  the  surrounding  states,  and  so 
laid  a  foundation  for  the  later  territorial  division  of  Peloponnesus, 
which  our  ordinary  maps  exhibit ;  but  it  would  be  a  gross  error 

*  The  Pelasgians  seem  also  to  have  possessed  a  considerable  portion  of  the  eastern 
coast. 

f  From  what  follows,  it  is  clear  that  this  event  was  conceived  of  as  anterior  to  the 
Trojan  War. 

I  So  called  from  their  building  their  ships  there. 


324  THE   HELLEXIC   STATES  AND   COLONIES.     [Chap.  XII 

to  conceive  of  their  kingdoms  as  corresponding  to  Argolis,  Laeonia, 
and  Messenia.  The  JKolian  kingdom  of  Pjlos  was  absorbed  in 
the  Dorian  state  of  Mcssenia  ;  but  the  northern  part  of  the  west- 
em  coast  remained  ^Eolian.  This  district  was  given  to  tlie  vEolian 
Oxylns,  as  the  reward  of  liis  services  ;  and  his  followers,  wlio  ex- 
pelled or  absorbed  the  old  Epeans,  became  known  by  the  name 
of  Eleans.  This  conquest,  which  is  known  in  history  as  the 
Rpturn  of  the  Ileraclids,  or  the  Dorian  Migration,  is  placed  by 
Thucydides  eighty  years  after  the  Trojan  "War.*  Tlie  epocli  prob- 
ably depends  entirely  on  the  calculation  of  generations,  and  it 
cannot  be  regarded  as  of  any  authority.  Tlie  legendary  talc  is  the 
dress  which  national  pride  gave  to  a  real  conquest  effected  by 
the  Dorian  race,  probably  in  the  course  of  several  generations  ; 
and  the  part  taken  in  it  by  the  Heraclids  is  a  device  to  connect 
the  new  possessors  with  the  ancient  glories  of  the  Achoean  kings 
and  heroes. 

The  legend  represents  the  Dorian  conquest  of  Peloponnesus  as 
the  cause  of  the  other  great  changes  in  the  Hellenic  world.  The 
Ach[ieans,  expelled  from  the  south  and  east  of  Peloponnesus,  fell 
back  upon  the  northern  coast,  driving  out  the  lonians,  and  formed 
a  confederacy  of  twelve  cities,  which  only  emerged  into  i)olitical 
importance  in  a  later  age.f  The  dispossessed  lonians  found  refuge 
with  their  brethren  of  the  same  race  in  Attica,  a  country  which 
also  gave  asylum  to  other  peoples  driven  out  from  their  homes  by 
the  Dorian  conquests  in  northern  Greece.  The  rugged  peninsula 
of  Attica  was  unequal  to  support  its  increased  numbers,  and  a 
great  migration  was  organized  under  the  sons  of  Codrus,  the  last 
king  of  Athens.:}:  The  emigrants  planted  colonies  upon  most  of 
the  Cyclades,  and  filially  settled  on  the  shores  of  Lydia,  fi'om  iiie 
Hermus  to  tlie  Mseander.  In  this  fertile  region,  upon  a  coast 
abounding  with  fine  harbours,  they  established  a  confederacy  of 
twelve  cities,  witli  a  common  centre  of  union  at  the  Panionium, 
or  Temple  of  Poseidon,  on  Mount  Mycale.     Their  settlements 

*  B.C.  1104,  according  to  the  common  reckoning. 

j-  It  is  obvious  that  the  small  territory  on  the  coast  could  scarcely  receive  all  the 
expelled  Achoeans  ;  and,  accordingly,  the  legends  carried  some  of  them  to  the  coast  of 
Asia  Minor.  From  the  correspondence  between  the  twelve  Ionian  cities  on  this  coast 
and  the  twelve  Achaean  cities  that  succeeded  them,  as  well  as  from  other  indieatrons, 
it  is  still  a  question  whether  we  may  not  regard  the  Achseans  as  representing  the  old 
inhabitants  of  the  country,  before  the  distinction  into  the  Acha;au  and  Ionian  races  had 
been  established. 

X  The  change  by  which  the  monarchy  expired  with  Codrus  will  be  related 
presently. 


GREEK  COLONIES  IN  ASIA.  325 

included  the  large  islands  of  Chios  and  Samos.  The  complete 
establishment  of  these  colonies  is  placed  by  the  chronologers  sixty- 
years  after  the  Dorian  migration,  and  liO  after  the  Trojan  War  ;* 
but  we  have  no  means  of  calculating  the  period  it  really  occupied. 

The  lonians  had  been  preceded  by  another  body  of  coloidsts, 
who  had  settled  further  to  the  north,  along  the  coast  of  Mysia. 
These  are  called  ^olians  ;  but  the  tradition  represents  them  as, 
to  a  great  extent,  Achreans,  driven  out  of  Peloponnesus  by  the 
Dorian  invasion,  under  princes  of  the  house  of  Agamemnon. 
They  betook  themselves  first  to  Boeotia,  where  a  great  revolution 
had  taken  place  twenty  years  earlier ;  the  Boeotians,  who  were  a 
Thessalian  people,  of  the  -^Eolian  race,  having  expelled  tlie  older 
^olian.  inhabitants,  and  given  their  own  name  to  the  country. 
Many  both  of  the  old  and  new  inhabitants  joined  in  the  expedi- 
tion, which  sailed  from  Aulis  in  Euboea,  first  to  the  island  of 
Lesbos,  where  they  founded  six  cities,  and  then  to  the  opposite 
mainland.  In  the  district  from  the  foot  of  Ida  to  the  mouth  of 
the  Hermus,  the  ^olians  formed  a  "  dodecapolis,"  like  that  of 
the  lonians ;  but  always  vastly  inferior  in  political  power,  and 
ultimately  subordinate  to  the  latter. f  The  ^olians  of  Lesbos, 
however,  achieved  the  supreme  distinction  of  founding  the  school 
of  lyric  poetry,  which  boasts  the  names  of  Sappho  and  Alcceus. 

In  harmony  with  the  preceding  legends,  the  Dorian  colonies 
in  the  south-western  corner  of  Asia  Minor  and  the  adjacent  islands 
are  said  to  have  been  founded  by  Dorian  chieftains,  who,  in  the 
general  unsettlement  naturally  connected  with  the  conquest  of 
Peloponnesus,  either  obtained  no  sufficient  share  of  the  spoil,  or 
were  led  onward  by  the  spirit  of  adventure.  Althsemenes,  a  prince 
of  Argos,  led  a  body  of  colonists  comiDosed  both  of  Dorians  and 
of  the  conquered  Achasans,  first  to  Crete,  and  then  to  the  island 
of  Rhodes,  where  they  built  Lindus,  lalysus,  and  Camirus.  These 
three  cities,  with  that  of  Cos,  on  the  island  of  the  same  name,  and 
Cnidus  and  Ilalicarnassus  on  the  mainland,  formed  the  Dorian 
Hexapolis  of  Caria.  These  Dorian  colonies  were  of  little  import- 
ance in  comparison  with  the  Ionian  and  ^olian  ;  and  we  have 
already  seen  that  Ilalicarnassus  and  Cnidus  became  in  a  great 
degree  Carian.  Crete  is  said  to  have  been  colonized  from  Sparta, 
as  well  as  from  Argos,  by  a  mixture  of  Dorian  and  Achaean  set- 
tlers ;  and  to  this  is  attributed  the  likeness  of  the  Cretan  institu- 

*  B.C.  1044  of  the  common  computation. 

f  Smyrna,  the  greatest  of  the  twelve  ^Eoliau  cities,  was  early  transferred  from  tha 
ifiolian  to  the  Ionian  Confederacy,  leaving  only  eleven  cities  to  the  former. 


326  THE  HELLENIC   STATES  AND   COLONIES.     [Chap.  XII. 

tions  to  those  established  at  Sparta  by  Lycurgiis.  Of  tlie  other 
colonies  planted  on  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  it  will  be 
more  satisfactory  to  speak  when  we  come  to  take  a  survey  of  the 
Hellenic  world  in  the  historic  times. 

These  legends,  however  imaginary  in  their  details,  exhibit  an 
actual  result  which  may  be  described  as  follows.    At  the  beginning 
of  tlie  mytliical  age,  the  two  dominant  races  of  the  Hellenic  world 
were  the  Achseans  and  ^olians,  the  Dorians  being  but  a  small 
tribe  in  Northern  Greece,  and  the  lonians  being  politically  eclipsed, 
or  nearly  so,  by  the  Achseans.     At  its  close  these  relations  are 
reversed.    The  Dorians,  repeating  the  part  of  their  Hellenic  ances- 
tors, conquered  the  greater  part  both  of  Korthern  Greece  and  the 
Peloponnesus.   The  -^olians,  who  remained  in  both  divisions  of  the 
country,  were  either  so  hemmed  in  or  so  far  distant  (as  in  Thessaly) 
from  the  chief  centres  of  activity,  as  to  have  little  weight  in  the 
politics  of  Greece.    The  Achseans,  excepting  the  twelve  cities  along 
the  coast  of  the  Corinthian  Gulf,  had  been  so  completely  absorbed 
into  other  races,  as  almost  to  lose  their  very  name.     The  lonians 
had  extended  their  name  in  a  manner  which  augured  their  future 
greatness.     Laying  hold  of  the  continent  by  the  laud  of  Attica, 
which  projects  into  the  sea,  their  maritime  possessions  extended 
in  a  sort  of  belt  encircling  the  ^gsean,  across  to  their  Asiatic 
colonies ;  and  how  completely  these  gradually  came  to  take  the  lead 
also  of  the  Asiatic  ^olians  we  have  seen  in  relating  the  conquest  by 
the  Persians.*  The  energetic  and  mobile  temperament  of  the  lonians 
disposed  them  to  use  these  advantages,  by  pursuing  commerce  and 
maritime  adventure,  and  learning  the  arts  and  refinements  of  life 
from  the  more  cultivated  Asiatics.    Here  were  the  materials  of  that 
great  maritime  empire,  which  was  afterwards  founded  under  the 
supremacy  of  Athens.    Thus,  even  at  this  early  age,  the  state  of  the 
Hellenic  world  seemed  to  portend  the  time  when  it  would  bedividecl 
and  convulsed  by  a  great  contest  for  supremacy  between  the  Dorian 
and  Ionian  races.     How  this  inevitable  struggle  was  brought  on 
by  the  peculiar  institutions  and  tempers  of  the  two  peoples,  will 
soon  become  apparent ;  and  we  shall  see  how  the  catastrophe  was 
postponed  by  the  glorious  and  successful  union  of  nearly  all 
Greece  in  defence  of  the  common  liberty  against  the  ambition  of 
Persia.     Meanwhile  we  have  to  pass  from  the  darkness  of  the 
mythical,  and  the  twilight  of  the  traditional  age,  to  the  full  light 
of  that  real  history  which  is  recorded  by  credible  witnesses. 

* 

*  See  chap,  x.,  pp.  273 — 4. 


B.C.  776.]  EPOCH   OF  TRUSTWORTHY  HISTORY.  327 

For  reasons  wliicli  we  cannot  stay  to  discuss,  the  beginning  of 
the  historical  age  of  Greece  is  now  placed  at  the  First  Olymjpiad^ 
or  the  niidsummer  of  b.c.  776.  Tliis  epoch  is  the  beginning  of 
that  consecutive  chronology,  which  the  Greeks  reckoned  by  the 
series  of  victors  in  the  foot-race  at  the  quadrennial  festival  of 
Olympian  Jove  near  Elis.*  The  very  fact  of  this  record  being 
regularly  kept  would  suggest,  as  in  the  case  of  other  annals,  a 
further  record  of  the  most  memorable  events  of  each  successive 
year;  and  the  knowledge  that  exact  chronological  computation  was 
now  established  among  the  Greeks  gives  us  a  new  ground  of  con- 
fidence in  their  statements  of  historic  facts.  Of  course  it  is  not 
meant  that  all  alleged  events  preceding  the  precise  date  of  e.g. 
776  are  to  be  discredited  as  being  mythical,  or  that  the  mythical 
element  disappears  suddenly  from  history  at  this  date  ;  but  simply 
that  this  is  the  epoch  at  which  we  begin  to  have  a  new  security 
for  historical  accuracy.  And  it  may  be  well,  in  passing,  to  remind 
the  reader  how  entirely  the  point  of  division  between  tlie  mythical 
and  historical  periods  differs  in  different  countries.  Our  own  coun- 
try has  a  mythical  period  between  the  departure  of  the  Romans  in 
A.D.  446  and  the  establishment  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  kingdoms ; 
and,  so  far  as  this  one  consideration  goes,  a  sceptical  historian 
has  no  more  right  to  discredit  all  primeval  history  before  the  first 
Olympiad,  than  an  Englishman  would  have  to  reject  all  ancient 
history  before  the  time  when  that  of  his  country  becomes  trust- 
worthy. It  remains  for  us  to  collect  into  one  condensed  view 
what  is  known  of  the  Grecian  states  and  colonies  down  to  the 
period  of  that  collision  with  Persia,  which  was  begun  by  the 
revolt  of  the  Ionian  colonies  from  Darius  in  b.c.  500. 

And  first,  to  speak  of  the  nation  as  a  whole,  it  must  not  be 
supposed,  from  the  stress  we  have  laid  on  the  independence  of  the 
several  states,  that  they  were  so  many  disconnected  units  scat- 
tered over  the  surface  of  Greece.     It  is  true  that  they  had  not 

*  In  the  language  of  the  Greeks  themselves,  the  Olympic  games  were  said  to  recur 
every ^/<A  year:  for  instance,  the  Olympic  festival  of  b.c.  776  at  midsummer  began 
the  7irs«  year  of  the  fii-st  Olympiad;  the  midsummer  of  B.C.  775  began  the  second 
year  of  the  same  OhTupiad ;  that  of  B.C.  774,  the  thh-d  year ;  that  of  b.c.  773,  the 
fo^irth  year :  then  the  following  Olympic  festival,  at  midsummer  B.C.  772,  began  the 
fifth  year  of  the  whole  series,  which  was  also  the  first  of  the  second  Olympiad.  So 
in  Greek  "every  third  year"  means  what  we  express  by  "every  other  year,"  or 
"  every  two  years."  Even  in  English  it  is  more  exact  to  say  that  the  Olympic  festival 
recurred  every  four  years  than  every  fourth  year.  It  is  of  great  importance,  in  translating 
Greek  chronological  reckonings,  to  remember  that  the  years  began  at  midsummer.  The 
first  year  of  the  first  Olympiad  corresponds,  not  to  B.C.  776,  but  to  B.C.  77f  ;  and  so  of 
the  rest. 


328  THE   HELLENIC   STATES  AND   COLONIES.     [Chap.  XIL 

yet  discovered  the  grand  device  of  federalism,  wliicli  they  were 
long  after  the  first  to  develop  in  the  celebrated  Achaean  League. 
But  we  know  of  no  period  at  which  they  regarded  themselves 
otherwise  than  as  one  nation.  They  prided  themselves  on  their 
common  Hellenic  blood,  and  the  expressive  name  harbarian 
marked  their  aversion  for  all  who  did  not  speak  their  own  beau- 
tiful language."'  Their  common  religion  was  a  still  closer  tie, 
and  developed  institutions  which  may  be  said  to  have  made  the 
Hellenic  nation  a  social  though  not  a  political  federation.  These 
were  the  Amphictyonies,  and  the  four  great  national  festivals, 
with  their  public  games.  The  Amphictyoniesf  were  associations 
of  neighbouring  cities  or  tribes  for  the  perfoiTnance  of  common 
religious  rites.  The  many  lesser  meetings  of  this  kind  were 
gradually  eclipsed  by  the  renowned  Amphictyonic  Council  of 
Northern  Greece,  which  was  also  one  of  the  most  ancient. 
Among  its  twelve  tribes  we  find  most  of  the  great  Hellenic  races, 
Thessalians,  Boeotians,  Dorians,  lonians,  Achaeans,  on  a  par  with 
tliosc  afterwards  of  the  second  order,  Locrians  and  Phocians,  and 
with  others  which  sank  into  complete  insignificance.  Its  great 
centre  was  the  temple  of  Apollo  at  Delphi,  of  which  the  Amphic- 
tyons  were  the  sworn  guardians.  They  met  at  Delphi  in  the 
spring,  and  in  the  autumn  at  Thermopyla?,  at  the  temple  of 
Demeter,  the  impersonation  of  the  teeming  earth  in  the  old 
mythology.  It  was  from  the  wealth  of  the  Delphian  temple,  and 
the  fame  of  its  oracle,  that  the  Amphictyons  derived  their  imjDort- 
ance  in  Grecian  history.  The  public  action  of  the  Amphictyons, 
in  early  times,  related  only  to  matters  of  religion,  but  their  union 
tended  to  mitigate  that  ferocity  which  war  is  sure  to  assume  when 
it  is  waged  between  neighbouring  states  of  the  same  race.  It 
was  a  part  of  their  oath,  that  "  they  would  not  destroy  an}'  city 
of  the  Amphictyons,  nor  cut  off  its  streams  in  war  or  peace." 

Of  the  working  of  the  Amphictyonic  Council  in  peace  we  know 
but  little.  When  the  Delphic  temple  was  burnt,  in  b.c.  548,  they 
contracted  with  the  wealthy  Attic  family  of  the  Alcmjeonids  for 
its  rebuilding.     At  the  beginning  of  the  sixth  century,  they 


*  The  word  seems  from  the  first  to  have  signified  one  who  spoke  not  merely  a  for- 
eign, but  an  uncouth  tongue  ;  and  to  a  Greek  car  all  foreign  tongues  were  more  or  less 
uncouth.  In  Latin,  the  word  naturally  acquired  an  application  to  the  nations  beyond 
the  confines  of  the  Roman  empire  :  and  as  these  were,  for  the  most  part,  wild  and  sav- 
age, the  term  easily  passed  into  its  modern  sense. 

f  The  most  probable  derivation  is  from  a  word  signifying  neighbours  or  those  dwell- 
ing round  some  particular  centre. 


THE  FOUR  GREAT  FESTIVALS.  829 

waged  a  ten  years'  war  against  the  port  of  Cirrha,  on  the  Corinthian 
Gulf,  on  account  of  the  exactions  to  which  the  Del]Aic  pilgrims 
who  landed  there  were  subject.  They  at  last  took  the  city  by  the 
aid  of  the  Athenians,  razed  it  to  the  ground,  and  consecrated  the 
rich  Crissaean  plain  to  Apollo,  with  curses  on  any  one  who  should 
cultivate  it.  This  was  the  "  First  Sacred  War  "  (b.c.  595—585). 
In  the  crisis  of  the  Persian  wars,  the  Amphictyons  came  forward 
as  the  representatives  of  Greece,  but  still  only  in  their  religious 
character,  by  setting  a  price  upon  the  head  of  Ephialtes,  the  betrayer 
of  the  pass  of  Thermopylce.  When  they  reappear  in  the  last  and 
fatal  crisis  of  Greek  freedom,  in  the  Second*  and  Thirdf  Sacred 
Wars,  it  was  but  to  sacrilice  liberty  to  the  Macedonian.  Their 
election  of  Philip  to  conduct  the  war  of  all  Greece  against  Persia 
forms  the  one  great  instance  of  their  assuming  to  act  politically 
for  the  whole  country.  And  thus  the  Amphictyons  only  attained 
the  position  of  a  political  council  as  the  last  step  in  preparing 
Greece  for  subjugation.  Well  might  the  free  Hellenic  states  be 
jealous  of  centralized  authority. 

Of  the  games  connected  with  the  four  great  religious  festivals 
of  Greece,  the  Olympic,  Pythian,  Isthmian,  and  Nemean,  there  is 
no  need  to  speak  at  length :  their  general  character  is  so  well 
known,  and  their  details  belong  to  works  on  Greek  antiquities. 
The  Olympic  and  Pythian  festivals  were  celebrated  every  four 
years, — the  former  at  Olympia,  the  temple  and  demesne  of  Olym- 
pian Jove  near  Elis,  under  the  presidency  of  the  Eleans.  The 
date  of  their  fou.ndation  is  lost  in  the  darkness  of  the  mythical 
age  :  that  of  their  revival  by  Iphitus,  king  of  Elis,  forms  the  era 
of  Greek  chronological  reckoning  (b.c.  776).  The  Pythian  games 
were  held  in  the  third  year  of  each  Olympiad,  on  the  Crissrean  plain, 
where  they  were  founded  by  the  Amphictyons  in  honour  of  Apollo, 
after  the  destruction  of  Cirrha  (b.c.  585).  The  other  two  were  held 
every  two  years  ;  the  Isthmian  by  the  Corinthians,  on  the  Isthmus, 
in  honor  of  Poseidon  ;  the  Nemean  by  the  Argives,:};  in  the  valley 
of  Nemea.  The  great  feature  of  all  these  festivals  was  those 
"Games,"  or,  as  the  Greeks  called  them,  "Contests,"  in  which 
prizes  were  awarded  to  the  victors  in  athletic  exercises,  in  foot  and 
horse  and  chariot  races,  in  music  and  poetry.  The  prizes  were  of 
no  intrinsic  value,  a  mere  garland  placed  as  a  crown  on  the  victor's 

*  Also  called  the  Phocian  War,  B.C.  350—346. 

\  B.C.  339—338. 

X  They  succeeded  the  citizens  of  Cleonse  in  the  presidency. 


330  THE  HELLENIC   STATES  AND  COLONIES.    [Chap.  XH. 

licad,  of  various  materials  at  the  different  games.  The  Olympic 
crown  was  of  wild  olive,  cut  from  the  sacred  tree  which  was  said 
to  have  been  planted  by  Hercules.  But  this  simj^le  chaplet 
carried  with  it  deathless  fame.  The  Greek  who  was  proclaimed  a 
victor  at  Olympia  ranked  at  once  as  the  greatest  man  of  the  whole 
Hellenic  race.  Plis  statue  was  erected  in  the  sacred  grove  called 
Altis  ;  his  praises  were  sung  by  poets  ;  he  was  conducted  in  pro- 
cession to  his  own  city,  where  special  honours  and  immunities 
awaited  him  ;  his  fellow-citizens  added  substantial  rewards  to  the 
olive  wTcath  ;  and  he  was  held  to  have  conferred  the  truest 
nobility  on  his  family.  The  royal  and  noble  houses  throughout 
Greece  were  as  ambitious  of  these  honours  as  the  humblest  citi- 
zens ;  and  they  were  alike  open  to  all,  from  every  part  of  the  world 
where  the  Hellenic  race  existed.  As  a  means  of  national  union,  the 
01ymj)ic  games  were  scarcely  less  powerful  than  the  great  Jewish 
feasts.*  In  addition  to  the  community  of  sentiment  cherished  by 
the  games  themselves,  the  concourse  that  they  brought  together 
afforded  the  means  of  commercial,  social,  and  literary  intercourse, 
the  more  effective  because  directly  personal.  Even  newspapers 
cannot  speak  with  a  living  voice,  exchange  question  and  answer 
while  the  thought  is  still  fresh,  and  look  face  into  face.  In  the 
booths  around  the  plain  of  Olympia,  merchants  exchanged  tlie  rude 
wares  they  had  brought  from  the  banks  of  the  Tanais  and  the 
Rhone  against  the  rich  products  of  Asia  and  Africa.  The  social 
and  political  condition  of  the  various  states  of  the  mother  country, 
of  her  farthest  colonies,  and  of  the  barbarian  nations  around  them, 
might  be  compared.  Teachers  of  philosophy  discussed  the  theories 
which  sprang  up  in  Athens  and  Italian  Greece.  Poets  and  histo- 
rians read  aloud,  in  all  their  freshness,  the  immortal  works,  which 
we  only  half  admire  for  want  of  such  a  hearing.  Such  intercourse, 
too,  must  have  tended  powerfully  to  maintain  that  likeness  in  man- 
ners and  modes  of  thought,  which  formed  another  bond  of  Hellenic 
union.  With  all  this,  however,  as  has  been  said  before,  there  was 
no  political  unity  throughout  Greece  ;  there  was  scarcely  even  the 
sentiment  of  patriotism  for  Greece  as  a  land.  The  devotion  of  the 
Greek  was  to  his  city,  the  interests  of  which  were  often  permitted 
to  outweigh  the  common  welfare  of  the  nation.  AVe  shall  soon 
see  how  difficult  and  how  imperfect'was  the  union  even  against 
the  pressing  danger  of  subjugation  by  Persia ;  how  soon  it  was 

*  The  same  may  be  said,  in  a  somewhat  lesser  degree,  of  the  other  festivals,  espe- 
cially the  Pythian. 


THE   SEPARATE   STATES   OF   GREECE.  331 

dissolved  ;  and  with  what  an  internecine  strife  the  leading  states 
and  different  races  contended  for  the  mastery,  till  they  sank 
together  under  the  Macedonian  supremacy. 

Turning  from  the  whole  nation  to  the  separate  states,  we  must 
be  content  with  a  brief  survey  of  their  progress  to  the  condition 
in  which  we  find  them  at  the  epoch  of  the  Persian  "Wars.  To  trace 
the  annals  of  each  in  detail  is  the  province  of  a  special  history  of 
Greece,  Homer  describes  the  Argives,  whose  capital  was  then  at 
Mycenae,  as  the  dominant  Achaean  state  of  Peloponnesus,  the 
next  being  Lacedaemon  under  a  king  of  the  same  family.  This 
order  of  procedure  lasted  after  the  Dorian  conquest.  Argos  was 
the  first  state  ;  Sparta  the  second  ;  Messenia,  which  had  absorbed 
the  -^olian  kingdom  of  Pylos,  the  third.  Argos  was  at  the  head 
of  a  powerful  confederacy  of  cities  in  the  north-east  of  Pelopon- 
nesus, including  also  the  island  of  ^gina.  She  emerges  to  our 
view,  near  the  beginning  of  the  historic  age,  under  a  powerful 
king,  the  Ileraclid  Pheidon,  the  first  of  those  rulers  who  set  up 
the  irresponsible  governments  which  the  Greeks  called  Tyran- 
nies. To  him  is  ascribed  the  first  coinage  of  silver  and  copper 
money  in  Greece,  and  the  introduction  of  the  earliest  standard  of 
weights  and  measures,  which  was  called  the  ^ginetan,  probably 
because  it  became  generally  known  through  the  commerce  of  the 
island.*  Having  been  called  in  to  aid  the  people  of  Pisa  in  a 
contest  with  those  of  Elis  for  the  presidency  of  the  Olympic 
games,  Pheidon  assumed  that  dignity  to  himself.  Sparta  resented 
the  usurpation  ;  and  the  defeat  of  Pheidon  in  the  ensuing  conflict 
seems  to  have  entailed  the  fall  of  the  Argive  supremacy.  He 
flourished  about  the  eighth  Olympiad  (b.c.  747). 

Sparta,  which  succeeded  to  the  supremacy,  had  been  trained  for 
the  eminence  which  she  so  long  held  among  the  Dorian  states  by 
the  institutions  of  Lycurgus.  Though  the  great  legislator's  public 
appearance  is  assigned  to  the  epoch  of  the  Olympiads  (b.c.  776), 
the  events  of  his  life  have  something  of  a  mythical  complexion, 
besides  a  suspicious  resemblance  to  the  details  of  the  life  of  Solon. 
These  incidents,  however,  are  quite  unimportant,  in  comparison 
with  the  institutions  which  bore  his  name.  Their  great  object  was 
to  convert  the  citizens  of  Sparta  into  a  sort  of  military  family, 
united  by  the  closest  social  bonds,  trained  in  the  severest  discipline, 

*  The  other  early  standard  was  the  Euboic,  on  which  the  Attic  was  founded.  Re- 
specting the  relations  of  these  systems  to  each  other,  and  their  probable  derivation  from 
Babylonia,  see  the  articles  on  weights,  measures,  and  money,  in  Smith's  Dictionary  of 
Atiiiguities,  2d  edition. 


333  THE  HELLENIC   STATES   AND   COLONIES.     [Chap.  XIL 

and  governed  by  a  close  oligarchy,  though  still  under  the  form  of 
the  ancient  monarchy.  The  first  object  of  this  constitution  was 
to  maintain  tlic  power  of  the  small  body  of  Dorian  invaders,  -whose 
successes  had  made  them  masters  of  a  much  more  numerous  popu- 
lation. Its  effect  Avas  to  build  up  a  state  which  resisted  those 
usurpations  of  tyrants  and  those  advances  of  democracy,  by  wliich 
all  tlie  other  Grecian  cities  were  revolutionized  one  after  the  other, 
and  to  form  military  power  fit  to  gain,  and,  so  far  as  mere  force 
could  do  it,  to  hold  the  supremacy  of  Greece. 

The  foundation  of  political  rights  at  Lacednemon  was  laid  in  the 
original  conquest  by  the  Dorian  invaders.  Their  descendants,  the 
Spartans,  alone  possessed  the  citizenship,  and  were  originally 
equal  in  their  personal  rights.  They  possessed  the  greater  portion 
of  the  land,  which  was  tilled  for  them  by  the  Helots ;  for  they 
disdained  alike  the  pursuits  of  agriculture  and  commerce.  ^Residing 
in  the  city,  they  passed  their  lives  together  according  to  the  disci- 
pline of  Lycurgus,  and  ate  at  the  common  tables  to  which  each  con- 
tributed his  share.  We  need  not  stay  to  describe  the  well-known 
discipline  by  which,  from  early  boyhood,  the  Spartans  w^ere  trained 
to  endure  hunger,  cold,  and  pain,  and  hardened  in  heart  as  well  as 
body  by  the  most  cruel  suft'erings.  That  discipline  was  the  very 
type  of  stoicism,  long  before  the  name  was  used  for  a  system  of 
philosophy, — the  concentration  of  human  power  by  a  self-sacrifice 
involving  the  extinction  of  some  of  the  highest  virtues. 

"To  suffer  as  to  do 
"  Their  strength  was  equal ;  " 

but  to  strength  they  sacrificed  all  that  w^as  graceful  and  amiable, 
and  much  of  what  was  truly  beneficent.  Even  in  its  best  aspect, 
the  fruit  of  their  discipline  was  only  for  themselves.  They  have 
left  to  after  times  the  admiration  which  self-sacrifice  always 
demands,  the  renown  of  their  warlike  exploits,  and  above  all  the 
D-lories  of  Tliermopyl^e ;  their  example  has  fanned  the  flame  of 
heroic  self-devotion  in  every  age ;  and  this  is  no  small  ])raise. 
But  their  influence  has  been  next  to  nothing  on  the  progress  of 
civilization,  arts,  letters,  and  free  political  life.  Hard  and  rude 
in  manners  and  temper,  proud,  overbearing,  and  despotic,  all  the 
sufi'ering  that  they  endured  and  inflicted  ended  in  the  possession 
of  power  and  the  praise  of  heroic  fortitude  ;  but  the  heart  beneath 
was  hollow.  Tlie  Spartan  boy,  who  with  unflinching  courage 
sufiered  the  concealed  fox  to  gnaw  out  his  vitals,  was  no  bad 
emblem  of  the  state  itself. 


THE  PERIOECI  AND   HELOTS.  333 

No  place  was  allowed  in  the  Spartan  discipline  to  the  graces  of 
literature,  from  the  very  reason  that  "  they  soften  men's  manners, 
nor  suft'er  them  to  be  fierce."  Oratory  was  held  in  special  con- 
tempt, as  a  waste  of  time  and  breath,  and  philosophy  was  Super- 
seded by  those  sententious  maxims,  the  brevity  of  which  we  still 
describe  as  Laconic.  Music  indeed  foniied,  as  thronghout  all 
Greece,  an  essential  part  of  education  ;  but  it  was  confined  to  the 
religious  hymns,  the  heroic  poems  of  Homer,  and  war-songs  like 
those  with  which  TyrtfBUS  animated  their  courage  in  the  second 
Messenian  War.  It  Avas  at  Sparta  that  Terpander  founded  the 
earliest  school  of  Greek  music  ;  but  when  he  ventured  to  convert 
the  ancient  tetrachord  into  a  heptachord,  the  Ephors  ai-e  said  to 
have  cut  the  new  strings  ofi"  his  lyre.  Commerce  was  forbidden  to 
the  Spartan  citizens,  equally  with  the  luxuries  procured  by  it.  Iron 
money  alone  was  allowed  for  their  few  trading  transactions  ;  but 
the  prohibition  of  the  precious  metals  only  excited  the  avarice  of 
the  Spartans,  whose  public  men  M'ere  the  most  venal  in  all  Greece. 

Besides  the  Spartan  citizens,  the  Lacedaemonian  name  embraced 
the  Perioeci^^  or  inhabitants  of  the  country  districts  of  Laconia, 
who  are  supposed  to  have  been  chiefly  the  remnant  of  the  old 
Achfiean  population,  but  mixed  with  Dorians  of  a  class  inferior  to 
the  full  citizens.  Though  excluded  from  political  power,  they 
were  free.  They  possessed  a  portion  of  the  land,  and  were  the 
only  class  engaged  in  commerce  and  manufactures.  Below  them 
were  the  Helots,  a  class  whose  unfortunate  condition  passed 
into  a  proverb.  The  intensely  bitter  feeling  between  them  and 
the  Spartans  was  a  gradual  growth,  though  its  seeds  existed  in 
their  relations  from  the  first.  They  were  pure  Greeks,  reduced  to 
servitude  by  conquest,  as  the  penalty  of  their  obstinate  resistance, 
when  the  other  Achseans  submitted  to  the  Dorian  invaders. 
Their  condition  was  that  of  serfs  bound  to  the  soil,  like  the 
villeins  of  the  middle  ages,  dwelling  with  their  families  on  the 
lands  which  they  farmed  at  a  rent  under  the  Spartan  proprietors. 
They  attended  their  masters  to  the  field  as  light-anned  troops 
and  they  seem  never  to  have  been  bought  or  sold  as  slaves.  They 
were  regarded  as  the  property  of  the  state,  and  could  obtain  free- 
dom by  good  service  in  war ;  but,  in  that  case,  they  formed  a 
separate  class,  under  a  distinct  name,  the  effect  of  which  on 
their  condition  may  be  compared  to  the  mark  of  colour  on  a  free 
negro  in  America.     Their  fixed  positions  as  cultivators  of  the  soil 

*  The  name,  which  was  not  peculiar  to  Laconia,  signifies  "  dwellers  round  "  the 
eity. 


334  THE   HELLENIC   STATES  AND   COLONTES.     [Chap.  XH. 

made  their  lot  better  than  common  slavery  ;  but  their  haughty 
masters  could  not  refrain  from  heaping  wanton  insults  upon 
their  rustic  serfs,  whose  resentment  was  inflamed  by  the  recollec- 
tion of  their  former  condition,  as  free  Greeks.  Plence  came 
all  the  atrocities  of  servile  revolts  on  the  one  hand,  and  on 
the  other  the  cruelties  prompted  by  an  ever-present  fear.  The 
Spartan  "  Crypteia"  is  no  solitary  example  in  the  history  of  the 
world  of  the  attempt  to  find  some  relief  from  such  fears  in  a 
system  of  indiscriminate  massacre.*  Sometimes,  however,  it  was 
found  convenient  to  use  their  services  in  war  as  full-armed  soldiers, 
and  they  were  then  usually  emancipated.  The  existence  of  such 
a  class  of  serfs  in  a  free  state  is  always  found  to  react  upon  the 
character  of  their  masters,  enhancing,  it  may  be,  their  pride  in 
their  own  freedom,  but  preventing  that  freedom  from  rising  to  the 
highest  type  of  genuine  liberty. 

The  government  of  Sparta  was  framed  in  the  same  jealous  and 
exclusive  spirit  as  her  social  institutions.  All  political  power  was 
in  the  hands  of  the  Spartans,  who  are  said  to  have  amounted,  in 
the  time  of  Lycurgus  to  about  9000  men.f  They  formed  the 
Ecclesia,  or  assembly  of  the  people,  a  body  possessed  of  as  little 
power  as  in  the  heroic  age.  The  Senate,  or  body  of  Elders,  com- 
posed of  thirty  members^  not  under  sixty  years  of  age,  and  elected 
for  life,  replaced  the  Council  of  the  Homeric  kings.  They  were  a 
real  deliberative  assembly,  and  were  also  judges  in  all  capital 
charges  against  a  Spartan.  At  the  head  of  the  state,  at  least 
nominally,  were  the  two  kings,  who  were  also  numbered  among 
the  thirty  senators.  Tliey  performed  the  functions  of  the  heroic 
kings,  commanding  the  armies,  and  offering  the  public  sacrifices  ; 
and,  long  after  their  power  was  restricted,  as  we  shall  presently  see, 
they  retained  its  form,  and  were  held  in  high  reverence  as  the 
descendants  of  Hercules.  We  have  seen  that  the  existence  of  two 
kings  at  Sparta  was  explained  by  the  tradition  of  their  descent 
from  Eurysthenes  and  Procles,  the  twin  sons  of  the  Heraclid 
Aristodemus.     However  this  may  have  been,  the  division  of  the 

*  The  Crypteia  was  a  secret  service,  entrusted  by  the  Ephors  to  chosen  Spartan 
youths,  who  went  forth  with  their  dagger  and  their  necessary  food,  hiding  during  the 
day,  and  in  the  night  stabbing  any  Helots  whom  they  met  in  the  roads. 

f  The  statement  that  Lycurgus  divided  the  land  of  Sparta  into  9000  equal  lots  for 
the  Spartans,  and  the  rest  of  Laconia  into  30,000  for  the  Perioeci,  however  incredible  as 
to  the  main  facts,  implies  a  traditional  estimate  of  the  relative  numbers  of  the  two 
classes.  The  Spartans  declined  rapidly  in  number.  In  the  time  of  Aristotle  there 
were  only  1000,  and  in  that  of  Agis  only  700  full  citizens,  of  whom  100  possessed  all 
the  land. 


THE   SPARTAN  GOVERKMENT.  335 

royal  power  paved  the  way  for  that  new  authority  which  is  the 
peculiar  characteristic  of  the  Spartan  polity.  The  institution  of 
the  Ephors  is  ascribed  to  Lycurgus,  but  it  was  probably  a  later 
encroachment,  w^hich  only  superseded  the  royal  j^ower  by  gradual 
steps.  '  The  Ephors  were  a  Committee  of  Five,  elected  annually 
by  the  assembly  of  the  people,  and  exercising  the  whole  executive 
power  at  home  and  abroad,  secretly  and  without  responsibility. 
They  even  arrested  the  kings,  and  fined  them  at  their  own  pleasure, 
or  brought  them  to  trial  before  the  Senate.  Two  of  the  Ephors 
accompanied  the  king  in  war,  and  formed  a  complete  check  upon 
his  authority.  The  Spartan  government  must  not  be  confounded 
with  those  aristocracies  or  oligarchies,  in  which  the  power  resides 
with  the  nobles  as  opposed  to  the  citizens  in  general,  or  with  the 
few  great  families  as  opposed  to  the  popular  Many.  As  there 
were  no  other  citizens  but  Spartans,  so  there  were  no  other  nobles 
than  these  citizens  ;  and  the  institution  of  the  Ephors  was  the 
very  means  by  which  the  popular  body  obtained  the  power  which 
had  formerly  resided  with  the  kings.  The  exercise  of  that  power 
by  a  small  committee  ensured  secrecy,  dispatch,  and  a  complete 
check  on  the  kings  and  every  other  officer  ;  while  the  annual  elec- 
tion of  the  Ephors  made  them  the  real  representatives  of  the 
popular  wdll.  The  government  of  Sparta  was  a  true  republic  ;  but, 
in  relation  to  the  great  mass  of  the  unenfranchised  Lacedaemo- 
nians it  was  a  republic  of  the  aristocratic  type. 

The  Spartans,  as  we  have  already  said,  were  a  mere  handful  of 
conquerors  in  the  midst  of  a  hostile  population.  They  trusted  to 
the  strength  developed  by  their  peculiar  institutions,  and  never 
took  up  a  defensive  attitude.  It  is  said  that  Lycurgus  forbade  the 
fortification  of  the  city,  which  in  fact  was  never  enclosed  by  walls 
till  the  time  of  the  Romans.  It  derived  some  protection  from  its 
site.  The  "  hollow  Lacedaemon,"  as  Homer  calls  it,  lay  on  the 
right  bank  of  the  Eurotas,  about  20  miles  above  the  sea,  in  a 
valley  shut  in  by  Mount  Menelaium  on  the  east  a)id  Taygetus  on 
the  west.  Its  houses  were  scattered  over  the  plain  in  several 
distinct  groups,  or  villages,  never  united  into  a  regular  town. 
This  mode  of  building,  together  with  the  inferiority  of  its  public 
edifices,  will  account  for  the  insignificance  of  its  ruins  as  compar- 
ed with  those  of  Athens.  Those  ruins,  consisting  chiefly  of  the 
agora  and  theatre,  and  some  relics  of  the  temples,  strikingly  fulfil 
the  conjectures  of  Thucydides  as  to  its  state  when  destroyed. 

It  was  only  after  a  long  struggle  that  the  Spartans  became 
masters  of  the  country  thenceforth  called  Laconia.     The  Achseans 


336  THE   HELLENIC   STATES  AKD   COLONIES.     [Chap.  XII. 

long  maintained  themselves  at  Amyclse,  the  ancient  city  of  Tyn- 
darus,  the  fall  of  which  gave  rise  to  the  proverb : — "  More  taciturn 
than  AmyclfB."  The  tradition  went  that  the  peoj^le,  worn  out 
with  false  alarms,  passed  a  law  forbidding  any  one  to  speak  of  tlie 
enemy;  so  that  at  last  no  one  dared  to  announce  their  approach, 
and  the  city  was  surprised.  The  condition  of  the  Helots  was  a 
permanent  memorial  of  the  resistence  of  many  of  the  Achseans. 
We  have  already  seen  the  Spartans  engaged  in  successful  war  with 
Pheidonof  Argos,  soon  after  the  beginning  of  the  historic  period; 
but  their  chief  enterprise,  in  that  early  age,  was  the  reduction  of 
Messenia.  This  was  effected  in  two  great  wars,  the  exact  date  ot 
which  is  uncertain.  The  first  Messenian  War  is  usually  placed  at 
B.C.  Ti3— 724,  the  second  at  b.c.  685—668. 

The  details  of  these  wars  must  be  left  to  the  historians  of 
Greece.  They  abound  in  romantic  incidents,  often  turning  upon 
the  ambiguous  responses  of  the  Delphic  oracle.  The  hero  of  the 
first  war,  on  the  Messenian  side,  was  Aristodemus,  who  devoted 
his  daughter  to  death  to  fulfil  an  oracle,  and,  when  his  country's 
cause  proved  hopeless,  slew  himself  upon  her  tomb.  The  conflict 
was  begun,  after  provocations  on  both  sides,  by  the  Spartans,  who 
surprised  the  fortress  of  Ampheia  without  a  declaration  of  war. 
From  the  fifth  year  of  the  war  the  Spartans  had  the  superiority 
in  the  field,  but  the  Messenians  maintained  themselves  in  their 
stronghold  of  Ithome  for  fifteen  years  more.  They  were  at  length 
compelled  to  abandon  this  fortress,  which  was  razed  to  the  ground. 
Many  of  the  Messenians  escaped  to  Arcadia  and  Attica.  The  rest 
were  reduced  to  the  state  of  Helots,  and  w^ere  compelled  to  pay 
half  the  produce  of  their  land  to  their  new  masters.  Other 
Peloponnesian  states  took  part  in  the  war,  the  Corinthians  on  the 
side  of  Sparta,  the  Arcadians  and  Sicyonians  on  that  of  the 
Messenians. 

After  thirty-nine  years  of  submission,  the  Messenians  found  a 
new  leader  in  Aristomenes,  a  hero  who  ranks  in  history  with  the 
Saxon  Hereward,  William  Wallace,  and  other  props  of  a  falling 
state.  The  story  of  his  exploits,  which  we  owe  chiefly  to  the 
traveller  Pausanias,  in  the  time  of  the  Antonines,  is  doubtless 
founded  on  patriotic  ballads  of  slight  historic  value.  He  began  his 
career  by  proving  that  a  Messenian  force  could  meet  a  Spartan 
army  on  ecpial  terms ;  and  followed  up  the  success  by  entering 
Sparta  at  night  and  hanging  up  a  shield  in  the  temple  of  Athena 
of  the  Brazen  House,  with  an  inscription  declaring  it  to  be  dedi- 
cated by  Aristomenes  from  the  Spartan  spoils.     All  Peloponnesus 


B.C.  685—658.]  SECOND   I^IESSENIAN  WAR.  337 

became  involved  in  tlie  war;  and  it  is  significant  of  the  jealousy 
inspired  by  the  growing  power  of  Lacedsemon,  that  Argos,  Arca- 
dia, Sicyon,  and  Pisa  sided  with  the  Messenians,  while  Corinth 
alone  joined  the  Spartans.  The  latter,  however,  had  a  more 
effective  ally  in  the  Athenian  poet,  Tyrtreus.  The  story  goes  tliat 
the  Spartans,  discouraged  at  the  first  exploits  of  Aristomenes, 
consulted  the  Delphic  oracle,  which  bade  them  seek  a  leader  from 
Athens.  The  Athenians,  too  jealous  to  render  any  eftectual  aid, 
sent  them  a  lame  schoolmaster.  But  his  martial  ballads  did  more 
to  urge  on  the  Spartans  to  victory  than  the  highest  miUtary 
talent  could  have  done.  We  still  possess  some  fragments  of  the 
war-songs  of  Tyrtseus.  Of  two  great  battles  between  the  allied 
forces  on  both  sides,  the  first,  that  of  "  the  Boar's  Tomb,"  gave  a 
signal  victory  to  the  Messenians,  but  in  the  second,  the  battle  of 
"  the  Great  Ditch,"  they  were  utterly  defeated  through  the  treason 
of  the  Arcadian  chief,  Aristocrates.  Like  Aristodenius  in  the  first 
war,  Aristomenes  now  abandoned  the  open  field,  and  collected  the 
remnant  of  his  forces  in  a  new  stronghold  upon  Mount  Ira.  Here 
he  maintained  himself  for  eleven  years,  repeatedly  sallying  forth 
to  ravage  Laconia,  while  the  Spartans  were  encamped  at  the  foot 
of  the  mountain.  At  length  Ira  was  taken  by  surprise.  Aristo- 
menes, with  a  few  brave  comrades,  cut  his  way  through  the  enemy, 
and  escaped  into  Arcadia,  and  thence  to  Rhodes.  His  sons  led 
some  of  the  Messenians  to  Rhegium  ;  but  the  rest  were  reduced 
again  to  serfdom.  Messenia  became  a  part  of  the  territory  of 
Laconia  (b.c.  668),  and  it  is  not  till  three  hundred  years  later  that 
the  Messenians  reappear  in  history.  The  LacedsEmonian  power 
was  next  extended  northwards  at  the  expense  of  the  Arcadians  ; 
but  that  primitive  people  kept  the  greater  part  of  their  country 
free.  The  long  resistance  of  Tegea,  the  story  of  which  involves 
the  curious  legend  of  the  finding  of  the  bones  of  Orestes,  ended 
in  the  submission  of  the  Arcadian  city  to  become  a  subject  ally  of 
Lacedgemon,  about  n.c.  560.  The  aggrandizement  of  Sparta  was 
completed  by  an  accession  of  territory  from  Argos,  including  the 
eastern  seaboard  of  Laconia  and  a  district  on  the  northern  frontier. 
Tlie  possession  of  the  latter  was  staked  on  the  issue  of  a  combat 
between  three  hundred  champions  on  either  side,  of  whom  only 
one  Spartan  and  two  Argives  survived.  The  victory  was  claimed 
by  both  parties,  and  a  general  battle  ended  in  the  defeat  of  the 
Argives  (b.c.  547).  Thus  the  Spartans  became  masters  of  the 
whole  southern  portion  of  the  Peloponnesus  at  the  very  time 
when  Cyrus,  having  overthrown  the  Lydian  Empire,  was  subju- 

TOL.  1.— 22 


338  THE   HELLENIC   STATES  AND   COLONIES.     [Chap.  XH. 

gating  the  Greeks  of  Asia  Minor.  How  fully  they  were  recog- 
nized as  the  leading  people  of  Greece  is  seen  by  the  application  of 
the  Ionian  Greeks  to  them  for  aid  :  tlieir  proud  sense  of  their  own 
power  was  shown  by  the  mandate  to  the  Persian  conqueror,  not  to 
touch  any  of  the  Grecian  cities,  for  they  would  not  allow  it. 

The  other  states  of  Greece,  and  Athens  in  particular,  Avere  in 
no  condition  to  dispute  the  pre-eminence  of  Sparta.  Kearly  all 
of  them  were  suffering  from  those  revolutions  from  which  Sparta 
had  been  saved  by  the  institutions  ascribed  to  Lycurgus.  While 
she  alone  had  preserved  the  old  kingly  government  of  the  heroic 
age,  modified  into  a  new  constitution,  they  had  abandoned  it  only 
to  plunge  into  the  conflict  between  tlie  Few  and  the  Many  for  poli- 
tical ascendancy,  or  rather  they  had  been  drawn  into  that  conflict 
by  the  natural  progress  of  events.  It  is  this  that  gives  the  states 
of  Greece  their  vast  importance  in  the  political  history  of  the 
world.  On  their  narrow  stage,  and  in  a  brief  space  of  time,  they 
passed  through  those  experiments  in  government  wdiich  other 
nations  are  still  trying,  and  which  some  have  scarcely  yet  begun. 
Their  history,  chronologically  ancient,  is  really  modern  in  respect 
of  the  principles  it  developes. 

The  patriarclial  monarchies  of  the  heroic  age  could  not  survive 
any  great  advance  of  the  whole  body  of  the  citizens  in  wealth  and 
intelligence ;  and  we  have  ample  evidence  of  such  an  advance 
about  the  beginning  of  the  historic  period.  In  the  Dorian  states, 
especially,  the  chief  families  were  at  once  aggrandized  by  the  pos- 
session of  the  conquered  land,  and  by  their  prowess  in  effecting  the 
conquest.  How  powerfully  such  causes  act  in  raising  a  nobility  to 
rivalry  with  the  crown,  is  proved  by  the  history  of  the  medieval 
feudal  monarchies.  But  in  these,  the  large  extent  of  the  king- 
doms, and  the  necessity  of  union  for  external  war  as  well  as  in- 
ternal supremacy,  were  powerful  motives  for  preserving  kingly 
government.  In  Greece  there  was  no  wide  territory  to  defend  or 
govern  ;  no  jealous  nobles  disposing  of  large  forces,  whose  mutual 
discords  might  be  turned  to  the  profit  of  the  crown.  "Within  the 
narrow  bounds  of  a  Greek  city,  each  step  of  progress  brought  the 
nobles  nearer  to  the  king ;  and  he  had  no  scope  for  placing  his 
power  on  a  wider  basis.  Thus  the  royal  dignity  seems  to  have 
died  out  without  any  violent  revolutions,  and  the  government 
passed  into  the  hands  of  the  nobles,  who  had  formed,  in  the 
heroic  age,  the  council  of  the  king.  A  remnant  of  the  more 
ancient  form  was  preserved  in  the  presidency  of  a  chief  magis- 
trate, who  bore  various  names,  and  this  lionour  was  in  some  cases 


B.C.  650. J      USUKPATIONS  OF  THE  TYRANTS.  339 

given  first  to  the  royal  family.  The  office  soon  became  elec- 
tive, and  tenable  for  a  limited  period,  under  a  complete  responsi- 
bility to  the  body  of  the  nobles.  By  some  such  process  as  this, 
the  steps  of  which  differed  little  in  the  different  states  of  Greece, 
the  parti-iarchal  monarchies  were  transformed  into  Oligarchies, 
based  on  birth  and  property  in  the  land. 

This  advance  in  the  power  of  the  nobles  could  not  leave  the 
body  of  free  citizens  as  they  were.  When  the  right  of  the  "  Jove- 
born  king"  was  once  in  question,  the  door  was  opened  to  the 
claims  of  the  free  born  citizen.  Here,  again,  the  narrow  limits 
and  compact  structure  of  the  Grecian  states  simplified  the  problem. 

There  was  no  room  for  elaborate  systems  of  representation  or  for 
ingenious  varieties  of  franchise.  Excepting  the  lowest  class  of 
rural  labourers,  and  a  few  others,  all  were  present  in  the  city,  or 
within  easy  reach  of  it,  ready  to  take  a  personal  share  in  the 
government  as  soon  as  the  opportunity  should  offer.  The  class 
consisting  of  the  smaller  'landed  proprietors,  the  artisans,  and  the 
traders,  were  growing  in  wealth,  intelligence,  and  numbers,  whilst 
the  nobles  were  becoming  subject  to  that  steady  decay  which  is 
the  doom  of  all  exclusive  aristocracies.  All  things  tended  to  the 
substitution  of  democracy  for  oligarchy,  a  change  which,  all  history 
proves,  can  hardly  be  effected  without  a  violent  revolution. 

Meanwhile,  however,  a  new  power  appeared  upon  the  stage,  to 
break  the  force  of  the  transition.  The  greatest  danger  to  an 
oligarchy  is  the  certainty  that  some  of  its  members  will  break 
away  from  the  traditions  and  system  of  the  body,  and  assume  the 
character,  either  of  usurpers  in  their  own  strength,  or  of  cham- 
pions of  popular  right.  So  it  was  in  Greece  :  as  the  aristocratic 
governments  lost  strength,  the  supreme  power  was  seized  by  that 
class  of  adventurers  whom  they  called  Tyrants.  This  word  im- 
plies an  illegal  assumption  and  arbitrary  exercise  of  power,  but 
not  necessarily  any  cruelty  or  harshness.  The  inevitable  tendency 
of  despotic  power  to  be  thus  abused  gave  rise  to  the  common 
meaning  of  the  Avord.  The  very  possession  of  such  power  hardens 
the  heart  and  stimulates  self-will.  Every  appearance,  or  even 
fear  of  opposition,  is  a  new  motive  for  cruelty  and  oppression. 
The  power  first  seized  from  the  nobles,  often  in  the  name  of  public 
liberty,  and  with  the  consent  of  the  people,  was  maintained  by 
the  support  of  foreign  mercenaries  ;  and  the  people  saw  their  old 
nobles  drive  into  exile,  without  any  gain  of  liberty  to  themselves. 
In  spite,  therefore,  of  great  material  improvements  in  the  cities 
they  governed,  and  of  their  patronage  of  literature  and  art,  the 


340  THE   HELLENIC   STATES   AND   COLONIES.     [Chap.  XH. 

Tyrants  grew  not  only  unpopular,  but  detested ;  and  even  their 
assassination  was  regarded  as  a  glory  instead  of  a  crime.  The 
Lacedaemonians  were  not  slow  to  take  advantage  of  this  feelings 
and  to  aid  in  overturning  the  despots  as  a  step  towards  the  re- 
storation of  oligarchy.  Their  policy  was  more  successful  in  the 
means  tlian  in  the  end  ;  and  the  fall  of  the  Tyrants  was  generally 
succeeded  by  a  struggle  between  the  Many  and  the  Few,  the  latter 
being  supported,  Avherever  it  was  possible,  by  the  j^ower  of 
Sparta. 

Tlie  age  of  the  Tyrants  may  be  defined  generally  as  extending 
over  the  century  and  a  half  from  u.c.  650  to  e.g.  500.  We  shall 
soon  see  how,  at  Athens,  their  expulsion  precipitated  the  Persian 
war.  Meanwhile  their  rule  in  other  cities  demands  some  notice. 
The  most  powerful  states  of  the  Peloponnesus,  after  Sparta  and 
Argos,  were  Corintli  on  the  isthmus,  and  Sicyon  to  the  west  of  it. 
In  both,  the  power  of  the  Tyrants  lasted  longer  than  in  any  other 
Grecian  state,  probably  for  the  reason  that  they  sprang  from  the 
people,  and  not  from  the  Dorian  nobility.  In  Sicyon,  Orthagoras, 
of  the  old  AchoBan  race,  overthrew  the  Dorian  oligarchy,  and 
established  a  dynasty  which  lasted  from  about  e.g.  676  to  about 
E.G.  560.  It  ended  with  Cleisthenes,  the  most  distinguished  of 
the  line,  who  only  left  a  daughter,  and  her  marriage  with  the 
Athenian  Megacles  added  the  traditional  fame  of  the  house  of 
Sicyon  to  the  pride  of  the  Alcmjeonidse.  This  lady,  Agarista, 
became  the  mother  of  Cleisthenes,  who  founded  the  Athenian 
democracy. 

Corinth  furnishes  the  best  example  of  a  tyranny,  both  in  its 
brilliant  and  its  hateful  features,  Cypselus,  a  man  of  the  people, 
whose  mother  belonged  to  the  ruling  house  of  the  Bacchiadse,  but 
had  been  treated  as  an  outcast  because  of  her  lameness,  overthrew 
their  oligarchy,  and  ruled  as  the  chamj)ion  of  popular  rights  (e.g. 
655).  Ilis  son,  Periander,  reigned  for  forty  years  (e.g.  625  to  585) 
with  cruel  despotism  at  home ;  but  he  made  Corintli  the  great 
maritime  and  commercial  state  of  Greece.  To  this  rank  she 
seemed  destined  by  her  position  on  the  isthmus,  commanding  all 
the  land  traffic  between  Peloponnesus  and  northern  Greece,  and 
communicating  with  the  eastern  and  western  seas  by  the  ports  of 
Cenchrese  and  Lechceum.  The  first  of  those  ships  of  war  which 
were  called  triremes,  from  their  three  banks  of  oars,  are  said  to 
have  been  built  at  Corinth.  As  early  as  e.g.  TOO,  she  had  founded 
a  colony  on  the  island  of  Corcyra(6(9r/'w),  a  name  most  memorable 
in   Grecian  history  from  that  day  to  our   own.     Corcyra   soon 


B.C.  625—585.]     PERIANDER  TYRANT   OF   CORINTH.  341 

acquired,  under  the  Dorian  settlers,  the  maritime  fame  wliich  she 
was  believed  to  have  possessed  as  Scheria,  the  island  of  Homer's 
Phaeacians.*  In  her  turn  she  colonized  Leucas,  another  of  the 
Ionian  islands,  besides  Ambracia,  Anactorium,  and  Epidamnus, 
on  the  mainland.  According  to  Grecian  law,  these  were  colonies 
of  the  mother  city  ;  but  the  Corcyrseans  were  powerful  enough  to 
maintain  a  practical  independence,  and  they  met  the  Corinthians 
in  the  first  sea  fight  recorded  in  Greek  history  (b.c.  664),  The 
renewal  of  the  conflict  at  a  later  period  was  a  chief  cause  of  tlie 
Peloponnesian  war.  Meanwhile,  it  is  a  striking  proof  of  Peri- 
ander's  power,  that  all  these  colonies  in  the  Ionian  Sea  were  sub- 
ject to  his  sway;  but  the  story  of  his  son  Lycophron's  retirement 
in  anger  to  Corcyra,  and  his  murder  there  by  the  Corcyrseans, 
seems  to  show  that  they  were  quite  ready  to  resume  the  inde- 
pendence which  we  soon  find  them  asserting.  Periander's  patron- 
age of  art  and  letters  is  rendered  memorable  by  the  case  of  the 
dithyrambic  poet,  Arion  of  Lesbos,  whose  romantic  story  proves 
that  we  are  not  yet  entirely  clear  of  the  atmosphere  of  legend. 
The  poet  had.  left  the  court  of  Corinth  for  a  musical  contest  in 
Sicily,  and  was  returning  victorious,  in  a  Corinthian  ship,  when  the 
rich  presents  he  had  with  him  tempted  the  cupidity  of  the  sailors. 
Though  deaf  to  his  prayers  for  life,  they  accepted  his  ofi'er  to 
play  them  one  last  strain  upon  the  harp.  The  poet  placed  himselt 
in  festal  dress  at  the  ship's  prow,  sang  an  exquisite  hymn  to  the 
gods,  and  then  cast  himself  into  the  sea.  The  charm  of  his  music 
had  attracted  a  shoal  of  dolphins  round  the  ship,  and  one  of  them 
took  up  the  poet  and  carried  him  safe  to  Tsenarus.  Keturning  to 
Corinth,  he  was  welcomed  with  delight  by  Periander,  who  punished 
the  sailoi-s  as  they  deserved.  The  power  of  Periander  was  only 
retained  for  three  years  by  his  successor,  who  is  said  to  liave  been 
put  down  by  the  Lacedsemonians. 

The  neighbouring  state  of  Megara,  also  situated  on  the  isthmus, 
between  Corinth  and  Attica,  affords  an  interesting  example  of  the 
party  conflicts  which  followed  the  fall  of  the  Tyrants.  A  tyranny 
was  set  up  by  Theagenes,  in  the  name  of  the  popular  party,  about 
B.C.  630  ;  but  he  was  expelled  about  b.c.  600.  The  Many  then  rose 
against  the  Few,  amidst  the  wildest  excesses  of  social,  as  well  as 
political  revolution.  Property  was  confiscated,  debts  were  can- 
celled, and  creditors  were  compelled  to  refund  the  interest  ali-eady 

*  The  identification,  though  commonly  made  by  the  ancients,  is  wholly  con- 
jectural. 


343  THE   HELLENIC   STATES  AND  COLONIES.     [Chap.  XII. 

paid  ;  the  poor  feasted  at  tlie  expense  of  the  rich  ;  and,  as  M'as 
usual  in  such  revolutions,  the  leaders  of  the  defeated  party  were 
driven  into  exile.  These  outrages  prove  the  intolerable  oppression 
that  provoked  them,  and  we  have  the  testimony  of  the  poet 
Theognis,  himself  a  member  of  the  aristocratic  party,  to  the  real 
improvement  which  the  revolution  made  in  the  condition  of  the 
people,  whom  poverty  and  debt  had  reduced  virtually  to  serfdom. 
After  a  long  struggle,  the  oligarchy  was  restored  in  Megara. 

The  like  revolutions  took  place  in  the  Hellenic  colonies ;  and  a 
greater  poet,  the  renowned  Alcseus,  reveals  to  us  the  fierce  spirit 
of  the  contest  at  Mytilene,  in  the  island  of  Lesbos,  where  he  him 
self  belonged  to  the  party  of  the  nobles.  This  state  furnishes  an 
interesting  variety  of  the  despotic  form  of  government.  The  chief 
popular  leader  was  Pittacus,  one  of  the  Seven  Sages  of  Greece, 
who  had  joined  with  the  aristocratic  leaders  in  expelling  the  tyrant 
Melanchrus  (b.c.  612),  and  who  had  afterwards  commanded  in  a 
war  against  the  Athenians  in  the  Troad.  When,  in  the  civil  war 
that  followed,  the  people  were  hard  pressed  by  the  exiled  nobles, 
they  appointed  Pittacus  to  the  office  of  ^symnetes,  or  Dictator^ 
which  he  resigned  after  holding  it  for  ten  years  (b.c.  589 — 579), 
having  by  his  wisdom  and  moderation  carried  the  state  safely 
through  the  passage  to  a  free  republic. 

Most  of  the  Greek  cities  of  Asia  had  their  tyrants,  whose  usurjia- 
tion  was  favoured  by  Persia  ;  and  w^e  shall  soon  have  to  recur  to 
their  relations  to  the  empire.  A  citizen  of  a  free  state  might  be 
the  tyrant  of  a  colony  : — 

"  The  Tyrant  of  the  Chersonese 

Was  freedom's  best  and  bravest  friend ; 
That  tyrant  was  Miltiades  ! " 

The  most  splendid  and  successful  of  these  Asiatic  Tyrants,  rivalling 
the  fame  of  Periander,  was  that  Polycrates,  of  Samos,  who  has 
been  already  mentioned  as  the  friend  of  Amasis,  king  of  Egypt.* 
About  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Cyrus,  he  usui-ped  the  government 
of  tlie  island,  with  the  aid  of  his  brothers,  one  of  whom  he  soon 
murdered,  and  banished  the  other.  He  adorned  Samos  with 
splendid  buildings,  and  patronized  artists  and  men  of  letters,  the 
most  distinguished  of  whom  was  the  poet  Anacreon.  By  means  of 
his  powerful  fleet  he  conquered  most  of  the  neighbouring  islands, 
and  even  some  towns  on  the  mainland,  and  repulsed  a  joint  attack 
by  the  Spartans  and  Corinthians,     Long  after  the  submission  of 

*  Chap,  viii.,  p.  13Y. 


EARLY  HISTORY   OF   ATHENS.  343 

the  other  cities  and  islands,  he  defied  the  power  of  Persia,  till 
Oroetes,  the  satrap  of  Lydia,  treacherously  enticed  him  to  the 
mainland,  and  crucified  him  on  the  sea  shore  (b.c.  522).  "We  shall 
speak  of  the  celebrated  Tyrants  of  Sicily,  in  describing  the  Greek 
colonies  in  that  island. 

The  one  state  which  exhibits,  most  strikingly  of  all  the  rest,  tlie 
political  changes  of  the  age ;  the  one  which  pushed  democratic 
liberty  to  its  utmost  bounds  ;  bore  the  brunt  of  the  conflict  with 
Persia,  founded  a  maritime  empire,  and  achieved  the  more  lasting 
intellectual  supremacy  of  Greece,  was  Athens.  It  is  needless  to 
describe  the  w^ell  known  site, 

"  Where  on  the  uEgcan  shore  a  city  stands, 
Built  nobly  ;  pure  the  air  and  light  the  soil ; 
Athens,  the  eye  of  Greece,  mother  of  arts 
And  eloquence,  native  to  famous  wits." 

The  great  Ionian  families  of  Attica  claimed  to  be  Autoch- 
thones, or  children  of  their  own  land ;  and  their  traditions  spoke 
of  a  time  when  the  rugged  soil  barely  supported  a  rude  and  scanty 
population,  and  the  Acropolis  was  still  a  naked  rock.  The  Egyp- 
tian Cecrops,  as  we  have  seen,  was  said  to  have  first  imported  the 
arts  of  civilization,  and  to  have  taught  the  people  to  build  cities- 
He  collected  the  scattered  natives  into  twelve  states,  each  with  its 
city  and  jjetty  king,  and  built  the  city,  which  was  called  after  him 
Cecropia,  on  the  rock  afterwards  so  famous  as  the  Acropolis*  of 
Athens.  The  contest  which  ensued  between  Poseidon,  the  great 
deity  of  the  Ionian  race,  and  Athena,  the  goddess  of  arts  and  ai-ms, 
for  the  possession  of  the  new  city,  was  one  of  the  most  favourite 
Attic  legends,  and  formed  the  subject  of  the  sculptured  group  in 
the  western  pediment  of  the  Parthenon.  Jove  and  the  other  deities 
presided  over  the  trial,  which  depended  on  the  production  of  the 
gift  most  useful  to  mankind.  Poseidon  struck  the  earth,  and 
called  forth  the  war-horse  ;  Athena  bade  the  olive  spring  out  of 
the  ground,  and  so  won  the  city,  which  was  henceforth  called  after 
her  name.  The  myth  is  doubtless  significant,  and  it  seems  to 
imply  a  modification  of  the  old  religion  of  the  lonians  by  some 
new  element,  not  only  of  worship  but  of  civilization.  That  same 
element,  whatever  it  may  have  been,  appears  to  have  given  Athens 

*  The  name  though  used  commonly  in  this  specific  sense,  is  properly  generic,  signi- 
fying the  Summit  City.  Such  rocks  were  often  chosen  as  the  sites  of  Greek  cities ;  and, 
as  the  plain  beneath  was  gradually  occupied  with  houses,  the  original  fortress  became 
at  once  the  citadel,  for  purposes  of  defence,  and  the  sacred  enclosure  containing  the 
chief  temples  of  the  gods. 


344  THE   HELLENIC   STATES  AND   COLONIES.     [Chap.  XIL 

the  pre-eminence  over  the  rnral  communities,  and  ultimately  these 
were  merged  into  one  state,  with  Athens  for  the  capital.  This 
change,  which  was  antecedent  to  recorded  histor}^,  is  expressed  by 
the  mythical  tradition,  that  Theseus  caused  the  citizens  of  the 
other  cities  to  remove  to  Athens,  in  which  all  political  rights 
became  centred  ;  the  rustic  population  alone  remaining  behind,  to 
till  the  land. 

The  whole  period  of  monarchy  at  Athens  lies  within  the  inythical 
age,  and  tradition  connects  its  end  with  the  great  Dorian  migration. 
After  achieving  the  conquest  of  Peloponnesus,  the  Dorians  made 
repeated  inroads  into  Attica.  An  oracle  promised  them  the  victory, 
if  they  spared  the  life  of  the  king;  but  their  hopes  were  frustrated 
by  the  self-devotion  of  the  king,  Codrus,  who  entered  their  camp 
in  disguise,  provoked  a  quarrel,  and  was  slain.*  Resolving  that 
the  royal  title  should  never  be  borne  by  one  less  worthy,  the 
Athenians  substituted  for  it  that  of  Archon  {Euler\  which 
remained  hereditary  in  the  family  of  Codrus  for  thirteen  genera- 
tions. The  last  of  these  Perpetual  Archons  was  Medon  (b.c. 
752),  Upon  his  death,  the  duration  of  the  office  was  limited  to 
ten  years,  but  it  remained  in  the  family  of  Codrus  till  b.c.  714, 
when  it  was  thrown  open  to  all  the  nobles. 

At  length,  in  b.c.  683,  the  executive  of  Athens  was  cast  into  its 
final  form.  Nine  archons  were  elected  year  by  year  from  the  nobles. 
The  first  was  called,  by  way  of  dignity,  simply  ArcJion,  and  also 
Archon  Epony7nus,\  because,  in  the  Athenian  reckoning,  each 
year  was  distinguished  by  the  name  of  its  chief  magistrate.  Besides 
presiding  over  the  whole  body,  he  had  jurisdiction  in  all  matters 
relating;  to  the  families  of  the  citizens.  Another  relic  of  the  old 
patriarchal  monarchy  was  preserved  in  the  functions  and  title  of 
the  Archon  Basileus  {King),  who  had  the  direction  of  religions 
affairs  and  ceremonies,  including  the  trial  of  homicides.  The  third, 
or  Polemarch,  besides  the  command  ofthe  troops,  had  the  decision 
of  all  causes  between  citizens  and  foreigners,  and  was  a  sort  of 
foreign  minister.  The  other  six  were  called  ThesmothtlcB  (i.e.,  LaW' 
givers) ;  not  that  they  had  what  we  now  call  legislative  power,  but 
because  their  judicial  decisions  fixed  the  traditional  unwritten  law 
which  they  administered.  The  body  of  Archons  continued  as  long 
as  the  republic  ;  but,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  their  functions 
were  in  a  great  degree  superseded  under  the  democracy. 

*  The  chronographers  place  the  date  of  Codrus  about  B.C.  1045,  sixty  years  after 
the  Dorian  invasion  of  Toloponnesus. 

f  That  is,  "  giving  his  name  to  "  the  year. 


B.C.  G12.]  CYLON  AND  THE  ALCJLEONTD^.  345 

Sucli  is  the  traditional  account  of  the  transition  from  monarcliy 
to  oligarchy  in  the  Athenian  state,  which  seems  to  have  been 
effected  ^vithout  any  violent  revolution.  The  Council  of  the  heroic 
age  was  replaced  by  the  Senate,  afterwards  called  Areopagus, 
from  its  place  of  meeting.*  This  Senate  was  composed  entirely 
of  the  ]^obles,  or  Eupatridoe,  and  its  ranks  were  filled  up  by  the 
Archons,  as  they  retired  from  office.  The  whole  body  of  citizens 
was  organized  on  the  basis  of  the  family  constitution.  There  were 
four  Tribes,  each  divided  into  three  Phr^atrice  (Brotherhoods) ; 
each  Pkratry  into  thirty  Gentes  (Clans),  and  each  Gens  into  thirty 
Families.  Thus  there  were  4  Tribes,  1 2  Phratries,  360  Gentes, 
and  10,800  Families,  numbers  which  of  course  could  not  have 
been  exactly  maintained.  In  each  of  these  divisions  there  was  a 
common  organization  for  social  and  religious  purposes.  Through- 
out the  whole  constitution  the  ruling  principle  was  that  of  birth  ; 
and  none  were  prouder  of  their  birth  than  the  Athenian  aristocracy. 
The  want  of  written  laws  placed  an  almost  unlimited  power  in 
the  hands  of  the  Archons,  which  was  natm-ally  used  in  favour  of 
their  own  class  ;  and  the  sanguinary  legislation  of  Draco  (b.c.  624), 
instead  of  affording  any  relief,  seems  only  to  have  perpetuated  the 
severe  interpretation  of  the  law  by  the  Archons.  Death  was  made 
the  penalty  for  almost  every  offence,  and  it  was  well  said  that  the 
laws  of  Draco  were  written  in  blood.  The  people  found  a  cham- 
pion in  one  of  the  nobles,  named  Cylon,  who,  encouraged  by  an 
ambiguous  oracle,  and  aideaby  Theagenes,  tlie  Tyrant  of  Megara, 
whose  daughter  he  had  married,  seized  the  Acropolis  at  the  time 
of  the  Olympic  festival  (b.c.  612).  The  insurrection  failed  ;  but 
it  led  to  important  consequences.  Megacles,  the  Archon,  enticed 
the  comrades  of  Cylon  from  their  sanctuary  at  the  altar  of  Athena 
by  a  promise  of  safety,  and  then  put  them  to  death.  The  stain  of 
his  sacrilege  was  imputed  to  the  whole  of  the  great  family  of  the 
Alcmseonidse,  to  which  Megacles  belonged,  and,  after  some  delay, 
they  were  banished  as  a  polluted  race  (b.c.  59Y).  The  city  was 
purified  by  the  Cretan  seer,  Epiraenides  (b.c.  596). 

These  events  were  followed  by  the  greatest  constitutional  change 
yet  made  at  Athens,  the  legislation  of  Solon.     Most  readers  are 

*  The  "  Hill  of  Ares  (Mars) "  is  one  of  the  isolated  rocks  which  rise  from  the  plain 
of  Athens.  Its  site  is  between  the  Acropolis  and  the  Pnyx  ;  the  latter  being  the  hill 
on  the  slope  of  which  was  the  place  of  meeting  for  the  Popular  Assembly.  The  name 
Areopagus  was  first  given  to  the  ancient  Senate  when  Solon  estabUshed  the  Council  of 
Four  Hundred.  When  it  afterwards  lost  its  legislative  functions,  it  retained  the  highest 
dignity  as  a  court  of  religious  judicature. 


346  THE  HELLENIC   STATES  AND   COLONIES.    [Chap.  XIL 

familiar  with  the  story  of  the  sage's  first  appearance  in  public  life, 
to  give,  under  the  disguise  of  madness,  advice  which  wisdom  was 
not  j)ermittcd  to  utter,  and  thereby  to  effect  the  important  con- 
quest of  Salamis*  (b.c.  600).  He  is  said  to  have  moved  in  the 
Amphictyonic  Council  the  resolution  against  Cirrha,  which  began 
the  First  Sacred  War  ;f  but  the  story  that  he  elfected  the  reduc- 
tion of  the  city  by  poisoning  tlie  water  of  the  river  Pleistus  is  pro- 
bably a  late  invention.  A  poet  as  w^ell  as  a  philosopher,  at  a  time 
w^hen  wisdom  chose  the  medium  of  poetry,  Solon  not  only  invoked 
the  Muse  to  stir  up  the  spirit  of  patriotic  conquest,  but  described 
in  his  verses  the  wretched  disorganization  of  his  country.  Still  he 
was  trusted  by  the  Eupatrids,  among  whom  lie  held  high  rank,  as 
the  descendant  of  Codrus.  It  was  by  his  advice  that  the  Alcmseo- 
nidse  were  induced  to  submit  to  trial  on  the  charge  of  sacrilege. 
"Weakened  by  their  exile,  the  nobles  preferred  entrusting  Solon 
with  the  reform  which  had  become  inevitable,  rather  than  to  be 
swept  away  by  the  impending  revolution.  In  the  year  b.c.  594 
they  chose  him  Archon,  with  full  power  to  make  new  laws.  It 
was  on  this  occasion  that  Solon  gave  the  memorable  warning 
against  lawless  ambition,  which  has  been  illustrated  by  all  history 
down  to  our  own  times.  Urged  by  his  friends  to  make  himself 
Tyrant  of  Athens,  and  even  taunted  with  madness  for  refusing  to 
haul  up  the  net  when  the  fish  were  caught,  he  replied  that 
"  tyranny  might  be  a  fair  country,  oiily  there  loas  no  way  out  of 
itP  The  answer  says  as  much  for  14s  far-sighted  discernment  of 
political  wisdom,  as  for  his  plain  sense  of  political  honesty. 

The  evil  relations  that  had  grown  up,  as  in  the  rest  of  Greece, 
between  the  rich  nobles  and  the  poorer  citizens  were  complicated 
in  Attica  by  other  elements.  The  very  formation  of  the  peninsula:}: 
had  a  marked  influence  on  the  social  divisions  of  its  population. 
Tlie  rugged  limestone  mountains,  which  cover  the  northern  and 
eastern  parts,  enclose,  where  they  approach  the  sea,  especially 
towards  the  western  coast,  plains  of  comparatively  large  extent 
and  of  considerable  fertility.  These  plains  were  the  possessions  of 
the  Eupatridae,  while  the  poorer  proprietors  had  to  content  tliem- 


*  The  Athenians  soon  wrestetl  the  island  from  the  Megarians ;  but  they  were  only 
secured  in  its  possession  by  a  decision  of  the  Lacedtemonians,  B.C.  596.  The  loss  of 
Salamis  gave  rise  to  a  lasting  feud  of  Megara  against  Athens. 

\  B.C.  595.     See  above,  p.  329. 

\  Its  decided  shape  of  a  triangular  promontory,  like  Cornwall,  ending  in 
"  Sunium's  marble  steep,"  was  expressed  by  its  most  ancient  name  of  Actl:^  i.e.,  the 
Promontory. 


B.C.  594.]  LEGISLATION   OF   SOLON.  347 

selves  with  the  sterile  highlands.  But,  besides  this,  the  large 
seaboard  of  Attica,  aud  the  adventurous  character  of  her  people, 
gave  rise  to  a  commerce  which,  while  adding  to  the  wealth  of  the 
nobles,  created  also  an  independent  maritime  population,  dwelling 
on  the  coast.  Hence  had  arisen,  not  as  elsewhere  two,  but  three 
divisions  of  the  citizens,  i\\Q  Lowlanders,  or  rich  proprietors  of  the 
plains  ;  the  Highlanders^  or  poor  cultivators  of  the  hills ;  and  the 
Parali,*  or  mercantile  people  of  the  sea  shore.  The  existence  and 
growing  prosperity  of  the  last  class  heightened  the  social  contrast 
between  the  other  two,  and  their  free  spirit  threatened  the  power 
of  the  oligarchy.  The  gulf  between  the  rich  and  poor  was  of 
necessity  always  widening.  Tlie  poor  borrowed  of  the  rich, 
pledging  their  persons  as  well  as  their  property  ;  and  then,  under 
the  severe  laws  of  debt,  they  became  their  serfs.  Some  were  even 
sold  into  foreign  slavery.  Such  a  state  of  things,  recurring  as  it 
does  in  the  history  of  aristocratic  republics  and  monarchies,  tends 
to  prove  the  w^isdom  and  mercy  of  the  Mosaic  law  of  the  jubilee. 
A  similar  remedy  was  adopted  by  Solon  for  the  emergency  in  his 
celebrated  ordinance  of  the  Seisachthela,  or  shaking  off  of  burthens. 
This  law  set  free  all  the  estates  and  persons  that  had  been  pledged 
to  creditors,  and  means  were  taken  to  ransom  those  who  had  been 
sold  abroad  as  slaves.  At  the  same  time,  Solon  is  said  to  have 
reduced  the  standard  of  the  coinage,  by  increasing  its  nominal 
value,  to  assist  creditors  who  had  suffered  loss  by  the  former  mea- 
sure in  meetinof  their  own  eno-affements.f 

Having  thus  removed  the  chief  source  of  enmity  between  class 
and  class,  and  having  repealed  the  sanguinary  laws  of  Draco, 
Solon  was  called,  by  the  united  voice  of  the  Athenians,  to  remodel 
their  political  constitution.  He  adopted  an  entirely  new  principle 
for  the  adjustment  of  political  rights,  the  first  working  of  which 
did  not  materially  disturb  the  existing  balance  of  political  power. 
The  basis  of  his  system  was  what  the  Greeks  called  timocracy — a 
distribution  of  power  to  the  citizens  according  to  their  wealth. 

As  the  Eupatrids  were  by  far  the  wealthiest  class,  they  were  not 
suddenly  deprived  of  their  ascendancy  ;  but  the  way  was  open  for 
the  other  citizens,  and  especially  those  enriched  by  commerce,  to 

*  The  Greek  word  is  borrowed  for  want  of  a  single  Englisli  term :  tlie  two  other 
classes  were  called  in  Greek  Pedicis  and  Diacrii. 

\  Respecting  the  details  of  these  measures,  the  points  of  political  economy  involved 
in  them,  and  their  effect  in  obviating  the  recurrence  both  of  similar  evils  and 
similar  remedies,  see  the  masterly  discussion  of  Mr.  Grote,  History  of  Greece,  vol.  iii. 
chap.  xi. 


348  THE   HELLENIC   STATES  AND   COLONIES.     [Chap.  XH 

political  power.  Solon  made  an  assessment  of  the  landed  property 
of  all  the  citizens,  taking  the  medlmnus  of  agricultural  produce 
(about  a  bushel  and  a  half)  as  the  standard  of  value,  and  as  equi- 
valent to  a  drachma  in  money  ;*  and  he  divided  them  into  four 
classes,  according  to  their  annual  income.  The  first  class  were 
named,  with  careful  avoidance  of  all  aristocratic  titles,  from  the 
amount  of  their  income  (500  medimni  and  upwards)  Pentacosio- 
medimni.  They  alone  were  eligible  for  the  Archonship  and  other 
high  offices  ;  and,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  they  bore  by  far  the 
largest  share  of  the  public  burthens.  The  second  class  were  called 
the  Horsemen  (or  Knights),  because  they  were  bound  to  serve  as 
cavalry,  providing  and  equipping  their  horses  at  their  own  ex- 
pense. They  filled  the  inferior  offices  in  the  state,  farmed  the 
revenue,  and  had  the  commerce  of  the  country  for  the  most  part 
in  their  hands.  Their  activity  and  intelligence  combined  with 
their  secondary  rank  to  place  the  balance  of  power  very  much  in 
their  hands.  The  third  class  were  called  Zeugitce  (Tokesmen) 
from  their  ability  to  keep  a  yoke  of  oxen  :  the  name  marks  them 
as  small  farmers.  They  served  in  the  heavy-armed  infantry  ;  and, 
in  common  with  the  two  higher  classes,  were  subject  to  a  property- 
tax,  which  was  assessed  at  a  graduated  rate.f  All  whose  annual 
income  fell  short  of  200  medimni  formed  the  fourth  class,  called 
Thetes.  They  served  as  light-armed  troops,  were  exempt  from  the 
property-tax  and  disqualified  for  public  office.  But  they  were  not 
excluded  from  all  political  power  :  they  had  a  vote  in  the  popular 
assembly,  where  their  numbers  would  give  them  an  influential 
voice  in  the  election  of  the  Archons  and  other  officers,  and  in  the 
judgment  passed  upon  their  conduct  at  the  expiration  of  their  year 
of  office.  This  direct  responsibility  of  all  the  magistrates  to  the 
popular  assembly  was  the  most  democratic  of  the  institutions  of 
Solon  ;  and  though  the  government  was  still  in  the  hands  of  the 
oligarchy,  Solon  clearly  foresaw,  if  he  did  not  purposely  prepare 
for,  the  preponderance  of  the  popular  element.  As  a  security 
against  the  adoption  of  hasty  measures  by  the  assembly,  he  insti- 
tuted the  Senate  of  Four  Hundred,  chosen  year  by  year  from  the 

*  The  Athenians  used  a  silver  currency,  the  purity  of  which  was  proverbial  through- 
out Greece.  Its  principal  unit  was  the  drachma,  a  coin  nearly  equal  in  value  to  the 
French  franc.  Its  worth,  computed  by  the  present  value  of  silver,  is  Ofc/. ;  but  how 
little  idea  such  computations  give  of  the  real  value  of  ancient  money,  in  exchange  for 
the  most  necessary  commodities,  is  seen  by  the  statement  in  the  text. 

f  The  details  of  Athenian  taxation  are  far  too  intricate  and  important  to  be  explain- 
ed here.  They  are  fully  discussed  in  the  Histories  of  Bishop  Thirlwall  and  Mr.  Grote, 
and  in  Smith's  Dictionary  of  Antiquities. 


B.C.  560.]  USURPATION  OF   PISISTRATUS.  349 

four  old  Ionic  tribes  by  the  people,  to  whom  they  were  responsible. 
Their  office  was  to  prepare  all  business  for  the  popular  assembly, 
to  regulate  its  meetings,  and  to  give  effect  to  its  resolutions.  The 
Areopagus  retained  its  ancient  functions,  to  which  Solon  added  a 
general  oversight  over  the  public  institutions  and  over  the  private 
life  of  the  citizens,  Solon  enacted  many  other  laws  for  the  adminis- 
tration of  justice,  the  regulation  of  social  life,  and  the  encourage- 
ment of  commerce,  which  cannot  here  be  described  in  detail.  His 
whole  legislation  tended  to  cultivate  a  patriotic  public  spirit,  and 
an  energetic  development  of  the  resources  of  the  state ;  and  it 
prepared  the  way  for  a  safe  transition  to  a  more  popular  form  of 
government.  How  fully  Solon  comprehended  the  true  principle  of 
legislation  is  proved  by  the  saying  attributed  to  him,  that  his  laws 
were  not  the  best  he  could  have  made,  but  the  best  that  the  Athe- 
nians were  able  to  receive.  One  of  the  most  interesting  parallels 
in  history  is  furnished  by  the  contemporary  legislation  at  Eome 
by  Servius  TuUius,  whose  constitution  was  likewise  based  on  a 
census  of  the  citizens  according  to  their  property. 

To  secure  a  fair  trial  for  his  constitution,  and  to  avoid  impor- 
tunities for  its  amendment,  Solon  took  his  departure  from  Athens 
for  the  period  of  ten  years,  during  which  he  bound  the  Athenians 
by  an  oath  to  make  no  alterations  in  his  laws.  He  visited  Egypt 
and  Cyprus,  and  probably  Asia  Minor ;  })ut  the  beautiful  story  of 
his  interview  with  Croesus  is  usually  rejected  on  chronological 
grounds.  He  returned  to  Athens  about  b.c.  562,  to  find  his  work 
at  the  point  of  destruction  by  the  ambition  of  a  kinsman  and 
friend  of  his  own,  the  associate  of  his  labours  for  Athens.  The 
old  dissensions  had  broken  out  afresh  during  his  absence,  and  the 
party  of  the  Highlands  had  found  a  leader  in  a  noble  named 
Pisistratus,  who  traced  his  descent  from  Pisistratus,  the  son  of 
Nestor,  and  whose  mother  was  first  cousin  to  Solon.  His  wealth 
and  liberality,  his  eloquence  and  fame  in  war,  secured  the  favour 
of  the  popular  party,  which  a  bold  stratagem  stirred  up  to  fary 
against  his  enemies.  One  day  he  drove  into  the  crowded  agora, 
bleeding  from  self-inflicted  wounds,  and  declared  that  he  had  been 
waylaid  and  nearly  murdered  in  the  country.  An  assembly 
hastily  convened  voted  him  a  guard  of  fifty  citizens,  armed  with 
clubs ;  he  increased  its  number ;  and  soon  ventured  to  seize  the 
Acropolis  (b.c.  560).  Solon  alone  had  the  courage  to  upbraid  the 
citizens  with  their  weakness  in  permitting  this  usurpation,  from 
which  he  had  already  tried  in  vain  to  dissuade  his  kinsman.  Pisis- 
tratus bore  with  magnanimity  an  opposition  which  met  with  no 


350  TPIE  HELLENIC   STATES  AND   COLONIES.     [Chap.  XIL 

support :  and  Solon  died  peacefully  within  two  years  at  the  age  of 
eighty.  He  is  said  even  to  have  been  consulted  by  Pisistratus, 
whose  first  government  was  conducted  with  no  further  violation  of 
the  law  than  the  outrage  of  the  usurpation  itself.  A  combination 
of  the  parties  of  the  Plain  and  of  the  Shore  soon  drove  him  into 
exile;  but  their  mutual  hatred  broke  out  afresh ;  and  Megacles, 
the  leader  of  the  faction  of  the  Shore,  formed  an  alliance  with 
Pisistratus,  giving  him  liis  daughter  in  marriage.  Pisistratus 
re-entered  Athens  in  his  chariot,  with  a  woman  chosen  for  iier  great 
stature,  and  clad  with  the  a?gis  and  helmet  of  Athena,  and  the 
people  welcomed  him  as  restored  to  them  by  the  goddess.  He 
took  the  daughter  of  Megacles  for  his  wife,  but  in  name  only,  as 
he  would  not  mingle  his  blood  with  the  accursed  race  of  the 
Alcmreonids.  This  result  drove  Megacles  to  renew  his  alliance 
with  Lycurgus,  the  leader  of  the  party  of  the  Plain  ;  and  Pisis- 
tratus was  expelled  for  the  second  time.  He  spent  ten  years  at 
Eretria  in  Euboea,  using  his  great  wealth  to  collect  forces  for  his 
restoration.  When  at  length  he  landed  at  Marathon,  his  enemies 
were  taken  by  surprise  :  a  victory  in  one  battle  was  followed  up  by 
an  amnesty  to  all  who  would  submit ;  and  the  leaders  of  the  other 
parties  left  the  country. 

Having  no  mind  to  risk  a  third  expulsion,  Pisistratus  hired  a 
body  of  Thracian  mercenaries,  and  sent  the  children  of  the  citizens 
whom  he  suspected  as  hostages  to  the  island  of  Naxos.  Like  the 
Roman  Csesars,  he  veiled  his  despotic  power  under  the  forms  of 
the  constitution,  and  even  submitted  himself  to  the  judgment  of 
the  Areopagus  on  a  charge  of  murder ;  but  his  accuser  did  not 
venture  to  appear.  He  maintained  his  popularity  by  mingling 
generosity  with  affability,  opened  his  gardens  to  the  citizens, 
adorned  the  city  with  splendid  edifices,  and  extended  a  munificent 
patronage  to  art  and  letters.  He  was  the  first  Greek  who  founded 
a  public  library ;  and  it  was  by  his  care  that  the  Homeric  poems 
were  first  collected  into  one  volume.  In  short,  Pisistratus  used 
his  power  in  a  manner  only  paralleled  by  Julius  Csesar ;  and  if  the 
plea  of  benefit  to  his  subjects,  so  often  advanced  to  cover  worse 
usurpations,  could  ever  avail  the  despot,  it  might  have  been  said 
with  truth  that 

"  Such  chains  as  his  were  sure  to  bind." 

He  died  thirty-three  years  after  his  first  usurpation,  b.c.  527. 

His  sons,  Hippias  and  Ilipparchus,  succeeded  to  his  principles 
of  government ;  and  we  have  the  decisive  testimony  of  Thuc^'dides, 


B.C.  514.]  HARMODIUS  AND   ARISTOGEITON".  351 

that  they  cultivated  wisdom  and  virtue.  Hipparchus,  in  particu- 
lar, imitated  his  father's  patronage  of  art  and  letters ;  and  the  great 
lyric  poets,  Anacreon  and  Simonides,  were  among  those  enter- 
tained at  his  court.  But  his  sensual  passion  supplied  the  test 
which  sooner  or  later  reveals  the  insecure  basis  of  a  Tyranny.  The 
celebrated  story  of  Harmodius  and  Aristogeiton  compels  us  for 
the  first  time  to  notice  that  hateful  practice  which  the  Greeks 
called  psederastia,  and  which  forms  the  deepest  shade  in  Paul's 
dark  picture  of  the  heathen  world.^  Harmodius,  a  beautiful 
youth,  beloved  by  a  citizen  of  moderate  rank,  named  Aristogeiton, 
rejected  the  temptations  of  Hipparchus,  who  took  his  revenge  by 
publicly  excluding  the  sister  of  Harmodius  from  the  honour  of 
carrying  one  of  the  sacred  baskets  in  the  procession  of  Athena. 
Incensed  by  this  insult,  Harmodius  plotted  with  Aristogeiton  the 
death  of  both  the  Tyrants.  Only  a  few  were  admitted  to  the  plot ; 
and  its  execution  was  fixed  for  the  great  feast  of  the  Panathensea, 
when  those  who  had  to  take  part  in  the  procession  could  appear 
in  arms  without  suspicion.  The  day  came ;  the  conspirators  as- 
sembled with  hidden  daggers  in  addition  to  their  other  arms ; 
and  Hippias  was  arranging  the  procession  in  the  Ceramicus,  when 
Harmodius  and  Aristogeiton  were  alarmed  at  seeing  him  in  fa- 
miliar  conversation  with  one  of  the  conspirators.  Thinking  them- 
selves betrayed,  they  resolved  at  all  events  to  be  revenged  upon 
Hipparchus ;  and  rushing  into  the  city,  with  their  daggers  con- 
cealed in  the  myrtle  boughs  which  they  carried  in  honour  of  the 
goddess,  they  slew  him  where  they  found  him.  Harmodius  was 
at  once  slain  by  the  guards ;  Aristogeiton  was  rescued  by  the 
crowd,  but  was  afterwards  taken,  and  died  under  the  torture. 
They  were  honoured  ever  after  as  the  first  martyrs  to  the  prin- 
ciple of  Tyrannicide,  and 

"  The  sword  ia  myrtle  dressed  " 

became  a  household  word  with  the  Athenians.  Meanwhile  Hip- 
pias's  presence  of  mind  disarmed  the  rest  of  the  conspirators.  The 
guilty  and  the  suspected  were  put  to  cruel  deaths.  The  "\Ahole 
spirit  of  the  government  was  changed  ;  arbitrary  taxes  were  im- 
posed ;  and  the  worst  features  of  a  Tyranny  were  developed. 
Hippias  took  measures  to  secure  aid  from  Persia  for  his  govern- 
ment, or  a  refuge  in  case  of  his  expulsion  (b.c.  514). 

For  four  years  he  maintained  his  power  against  the  discontent 
of  the  people  and  the  attacks  of  the  banished  Alcmoeonids.  These 
had  secured  the  favour  of  the  Delphic  oracle  by  their  liberality  in 

*  Romans  i.  26.  27. 


352  THE   HELLENIC   STATES  AND   COLONTES.     [Chap.  XH. 

executing  their  contract  for  rebuilding  the  temple ;  *  and  its  voice 
was  heard,  like  that  of  Cato  in  the  Roman  Senate,  reiterating  the 
same  response  : — "  Athens  must  he  liberated."  The  Lacedaemo- 
nians, now  at  the  height  of  their  power,  and  proud  of  having  put 
down  the  rest  of  the  Tyrants  throughout  Greece,  resolved  to  obey 
the  oracle.  After  a  brief  struggle,  Ilippias  retired  to  Sigeum  in 
the  Troad  (b.c.  510).  He  afterwards  repaired  to  the  court  of  Da- 
rius, became  his  adviser  in  planning  the  attack  on  Greece,  and 
himself  guided  the  expedition  of  Datis  and  Artaphernes  to  the 
plain  of  Marathon.  Some  said  that  he  fell  in  the  battle,  others 
that  he  died  at  Lemnos  on  his  return.  The  family  of  the  Pisis- 
tratids  were  doomed  to  perpetual  banishment,  and  were  ever  after- 
wards excepted  from  acts  of  amnesty.  Their  rule  had  lasted  ex- 
actly fifty  years,  reckoning  from  the  first  usurpation  of  Pisistratus. 
Its  whole  story  forms  one  of  the  most  instructive  lessons  in  all 
history  against  the  usurpation  of  a  private  citizen,  on  whatever 
pretext,  and  however  his  power  may  be  used. 

The  Lacedaemonians  retired  from  Athens  after  the  departure 
of  Hippias,  but  not  till  their  king,  Cleomenes,  had  established  close 
relations  of  friendship  with  Isagoras,  the  leader  of  the  aristocratic 
party.  Opposed  to  him  was  Cleisthenes,  the  head  of  the  Alc- 
maeonids,  who  found  themselves  in  a  strange  position  between 
their  claims  of  high  nobility  and  the  ban  that  rested  on  their 
family.  After  some  struggles,  in  which  Isagoras  got  the  better, 
Cleisthenes  threw  himself  upon  the  people,  and  efifected  a  change 
in  the  constitution,  which  formed  the  true  establishment  of  the 
Athenian  democracy.  Herodotus  says,  "  He  took  into  partner- 
ship the  People,  who  had  before  been  excluded  from  everything," 
proving  how  little  importance  the  historian  attached  to  the  germs 
of  popular  power  in  the  constitution  of  Solon. 

Cleisthenes  began  by  remodelling  the  basis  of  citizenship,  which 
had  hitherto  rested  on  the  old  patriarchal  system  of  the  four  Ionic 
tribes,  with  their  brotherhoods,  clans,  and  families.  But,  as  was 
natural  in  a  prosperous  commercial  and  maritime  state,  Attica 
contained  a  large  free  population  which  had  no  place  in  these  cor- 
porations, and  so  no  franchise.  Cleisthenes  divided  the  Avhole 
country  into  denies,  f  each  of  which  managed  its  own  local  affiiirs ; 

*  The  temple  was  burnt  in  B.C.  518,  Party  spirit  attributed  the  conflagration  to 
the  Pisistratids. 

f  These  divisions  may  be  compared  to  parishes.  The  word  signifies  peoples,  as  if 
each  deme  were  a  miniature  of  the  whole  body  of  the  people.  The  number  of  demes 
was  afterwards  174  ;  the  original  number  under  Cleisthenes  is  unknown. 


B.C.  509.]  REFORMS   OF   CLEISTHENES.  353 

and  lie  grouped  the  demes  into  ten  new  tribes.  The  domes  com- 
posing each  were  not  contiguous,  lest  the  old  local  factions  should 
preponderate  in  particular  tribes.  All  freemen,  including  some  at 
least  of  the  resident  foreigners  and  emancipated  slaves,*  were 
enrolled  in  the  demes,  and  so  became  members  of  the  tribes,  Avhich 
entirely  superseded  the  four  old  Ionian  tribes. 

Solon's  Senate  of  Four  Hundred  became  now  a  Senate  of  Five 
Hundred,  fifty  members  being  elected  from  each  tribe.  The  mode 
of  election  was  by  lot ;  but  it  is  uncertain  whether  this  was  the 
case  from  the  first.f  To  this  body  Cleisthenes  committed  the  chief 
functions  of  executive  government.  It  sat  in  permanence ;  and  its 
business  was  arranged  on  a  curious  artificial  system.  The  senate 
was  divided  into  ten  sections,  or  committees,  one  for  each  tribe, 
called  the  Prytanies  y  and  a  similar  division  was  made  of  the  year, 
thirty-five  days  each  being  allotted  to  six  of  the  prytanies,  and 
thirty-six  days  each  to  the  other  four.  These  made  up  the  common 
year  of  twelve  lunar  months,  or  354  days.  Each  prytany  had  the 
presidency  of  the  Senate  and  Ecclesia  during  its  term,  in  an  order 
decided  by  lot.  Every  prytany  of  fifty  members  was  subdivided  into 
five  committees  of  ten,  each  of  which  held  the  presidency  for 
seven  days  with  the  title  of  Pro'edri  (Presidents) ;  and  out  of  these 
a  chairman  {Epistates)  was  chosen  by  lot  every  day,  to  preside  in 
the  Senate  and  the  Ecclesia,  and  to  keep  the  keys  of  the  Acropolis 
and  Treasury,  as  well  as  the  public  seal.  How  great  a  power  the 
office  of  Epistates  put  into  the  hands  of  its  holder  for  the  day,  is 
seen  in  the  case  of  Socrates,  who  refused  to  put  an  illegal  question 
to  the  vote,  in  the  case  of  the  ten  generals  accused  for  their  con- 
duct at  Arginusse. 

•  The  Ecclesia,  or  Assembly  of  the  People,  gained  a  great  exten- 
sion of  power,  from  being  regularly  and  frequently  summoned; 
and  it  became  the  arena  for  debating  all  important  public  measures. 
The  Archons  were  elected  as  before,  and  with  the  same  exclusion 

*  Aristotle,  Polit.   iii.    1,  §  10;  \\.  2,  §  11.      See  Mr.   Grote's  discussion  ot  the 
meaning  {History  of  Greece,  vol.  iv.  p.  170). 

\  The  practice  of  choosing  public  officers  by  lot  is  one  of  the  most  curious  develop- 
ments of  democratic  equality  at  Athens.  It  was  of  course  open  to  the  ridicule  heaped 
upon  it  by  Socrates,  as  having  nothing  to  do  with  the  fitness  of  the  persons  chosen,  but 
it  does  not,  like  some  systems  of  patronage,  give  a  preference  to  men  known  to  be 
unfit.  It  had  the  advantage  of  avoiding  the  evils  of  some  popular  elections,  in  which 
bitter  faction  and  unbounded  corruption  often  leave  a  result  as  unsatisfactory  as  the  lot 
could  have  turned  out.  It  may  be  as  well  to  caution  some  readers  against  confounding 
election  by  lot,  which  depends  entirely  on  chance,  without  any  voting  at  all,  with  elec- 
tion by  ballot,  which  is  a  device  to  insure  secresy  in  voting. 
VOL.  I.— 23 


854  THE   HELLENIC   STATES  AND   COLONIES.     [Chap.  XII. 

of  the  lowest  of  Solon's  four  classes  from  this  and  the  other  chief 
offices  of  the  state.  Their  political  power  was  transferred  to  the 
Senate  and  the  Ecclesia  ;  and  a  beginning  was  even  made  of  that 
transference  of  their  judicial  functions  to  tlie  people  which  was 
afterwards  effected.  The  third  Archon  retained  the  title  of  Pole- 
march,  or  Commander-in-chief,  but  he  was  associated  with  a  body  ' 
of  ten  Generals  {Strategi),  elected  annually  by  the  people,  one  from 
each  tribe.  Besides  the  command  in  war,  the  Strategi  had  the 
direction  of  foreign  affairs.  They  thus  became  the  most  important 
executive  officers  in  the  state.  The  first  Strategus  was  in  fact  the 
Prime  Minister  of  the  people ;  and  Pericles,  for  example,  governed 
in  this  character. 

'  As  a  safeguard  against  new  attempts  to  set  up  a  Tyranny, 
Cleisthenes  devised  the  remarkable  institution  of  Ostracism,  the 
nature  of  which  has  been  obscured  by  much  thoughtless  declama- 
tion, especially  in  relation  to  Aristides, 

"  Him  whom  migrateful  Athens  could  expel, 
At  all  times  Just,  save  when  he  signed  the  shell." 

It  was  a  plan  for  nipping  in  the  bud  any  danger  that  might  seem 
to  threaten  the  state  from  the  too  great  influence  of  a  powerful 
citizen.  Without  subjecting  him  to  any  accusation  or  casting  any 
stigma  upon  his  character,  it  removed  him  from  the  city  for  a 
period  nominally  of  ten  years  (afterwards  reduced  to  five),  but 
often  abridged  by  a  vote  of  recall,  which  was  sure  to  be  passed 
when  his  services  were  needed  by  the  state.  When  the  banish- 
ment was  not  of  long  duration,  it  probably  involved  no  great 
hardship  beyond  the  exclusion  from  power,  the  inevitable  penalty 
of  defeat  in  the  party  struggles  of  a  popular  government.  The 
retirement  of  Aristides  to  his  estate  in  Salamis,  the  travels  of 
Themistocles  among  his  Argive  and  other  friends,  were  to  them 
what  "  the  cold  shades  of  opposition  "  are  to  our  party  leaders  ; 
only  they  lost  neither  salary  nor  pension,  for  they  served  their 
country  without  pay.  The  exile's  property  remained  intact,  and 
his  rights  as  a  citizen  revived  on  his  return^  with  his  political 
influence  probably  increased  by  reaction.  How  little  any  idea  of 
disgrace  was  involved  in  the  sentence,  is  proved  by  the  fact  that 
the  Athenians  disused  ostracism  as  having  been  degraded  by  its 
application  to  the  worthless  demagogue  Ilyperbolus.  The  insti- 
tution was  fenced  with  securities  against  abuse.  No  vote  of 
ostracism  could  be  taken  except  by  the  direction  of  the  Senate 
and  the  Ecclesia  at  a  fixed  period  of  the  year.     When  they  had 


B.C.  508.J  COUNTER-REVOLUTION  DEFEATED.  355 

declared  that  such  a  vote  was  needful  for  the  safety  of  the  state, 
it  remained  for  the  people  to  designate  its  object,  for  the  person 
was  as  yet  unnamed.  Every  citizen  wrote  a  name  on  an  oyster- 
shell  or  tile,*  or  got  it  written  for  him,  as  in  the  well-hno^vQ 
story  of  Aristides.  The  Archons  and  Presidents  of  the  Senate 
collected  the  votes  in  the  agora,  and  the  citizen  designated  by  not 
less  than  6000  votes  had  to  withdraw  from  the  city  within  ten  days. 
It  should  be  observed  that  ostracism  was  not  only  a  direct  check 
on  the  too  great  power  of  any  one  citizen,  but  a  means  of  averting 
civil  discord,  when  threatened  by  the  even  balance  of  parties, 
as  in  the  rivalry  of  Aristides  and  Themistocles.  The  efficacy  of 
the  remedy  is  proved  by  the  fact,  that  no  tyrannical  usurpation 
occurred  at  Athens  after  that  of  Pisistratus,  though  there  were 
not  wanting  men,  like  Alcibiades,  quite  disposed  to  make  the 
attempt,  f 

As  compared  with  the  constitution  of  Solon,  the  measures  of 
Cleisthenes  were  a  democratic  revolution  ;  and  the  aristocratic 
party  did  not  submit  without  a  struggle.  Isagoras  called  in  the 
aid  of  the  Lacedaemonians.  They  had  recourse  to  the  religious 
pretext  which  they  afterwards  used  against  Pericles,  and  required 
the  expulsion  of  the  accursed  race  of  the  Alcmseonids.  The  time 
had  not  yet  come  when  such  a  demand  could  be  disregarded,  and 
Cleisthenes  retired  from  Athens.  But  the  violence  with  which 
the  counter-revolution  was  begun  roused  the  people  to  resistance. 
Isagoras  and  Cleomenes,  blockaded  in  the  Acropolis,  were  forced 
to  surrender  for  want  of  provisions :  they  themselves  were  dis- 
missed, but  their  Athenian  adherents  fell  victims  to  the  rage  of 
the  people  ;  and  Cleisthenes  was  recalled.  Thus  began  the  long 
rivalry  between  Athens  and  Sparta,  as  the  representatives  of 
democracy  and  oligarchy  in  Greece. 

Both  parties  prepared  for  war,  and  both  gave  proofs  of  the  fatal 
influence  of  such  discords  on  Greek  patriotism.  Cleisthenes  sought 
the  alliance  of  Persia  ;  but  the  Athenians  indignantly  repudiated 
the  consent  of  his  envoys  to  send  earth  and  water,  the  customary 
tokens  of  submission,  to  the  Great  King.  The  Spartans,  who 
boasted  of  having  put  down  the  tyrants  throughout  Greece, 
marched  into  Attica  with  their  Peloponnesian  allies,  and  the  forces 
of  Thebes  and  Chalcis  in  Euboea,  to  set  up  Isagoras  as  tyrant  at 

*  Hence  the  word  ostracism,  from  oo-Tpa/coi/,  a  tile  or  shell. 

\  See  further  the  discussion  of  the  whole  subject  by  Mr.  Grote,  who  has  for  the 
first  time  explained  the  real  nature  and  working  of  ostracism  {History  of  Greece,  vol. 
iv.  c.  xxxi. 


356  THE   HELLENIC   STATES  AND  COLONIES.     [Chap.  XII. 

Athens.  This  was  the  object  proposed  by  Cleomenes ;  but  it  was 
defeated  by  the  opposition  of  the  allies,  and  even  of  his  own 
colleague  Demaratus.  A  like  scheme  on  behalf  of  Hippias  was 
rejected  at  a  congress  of  the  allies,  chiefly  through  the  bold 
remonstrances  of  the  Corinthians.  In  these  proceedings  we  see 
the  Peloponnesian  confederacy  already  established,  and  meeting 
for  consultation  and  action,  under  the  leadership  of  Sparta,  but 
with  the  Corinthians  as  a  check  on  her  preponderance. 

Meanwhile  the  Athenians  took  vengeance  ontheThebans  and 
Chalcidians,  and  established  their  dominion  in  the  island  of 
Euboea.  On  this  occasion  we  first  meet  with  their  celebrated 
system  of  colonizing  conquered  states.  The  lands  of  Chalcis  were 
divided  into  4000  portions  {cleri,  i.e.  lots),  which  were  distributed 
by  lot  among  4000  poor  citizens  of  Athens,  who  were  called 
Cleruchi  (Jot-Jiolders).^  Thus  began  the  dominion  of  Athens  in 
the  island  of  the  JEgaean.  During  these  campaigns  the  people 
of  the  islands  of  ^gina,  which  was  at  this  time  a  great  maritime 
power,  were  induced  by  the  Thebans  to  ravage  Attica ;  and  thus 
began  the  internecine  hatred  between  the  Athenians  and^gine- 
tans.  The  democratic  constitution  was  nov\^  firmly  established ; 
and,  whatever  seeds  of  abuse  it  might  contain,  the  first-fruits  of 
popular  liberty  were  seen  in  the  glorious  part  taken  by  Athens 
in  the  Persian  Wars. 

Having  thus  traced  the  rise  and  progress  of  the  principal 
Hellenic  states,  and  having  fully  described  the  political  condition 
of  the  two  which  became  the  leaders  of  all  the  rest,  a  few  words 
will  suffice  concerning  the  others.  The  belt  of  land  forming 
Central  Greece  was  occupied  by  races  chiefly  of  ^olian  descent, 
but  with  a  strong  intermixtvire  of  the  Dorian  element.  JSText  to 
Attica,  the  large  district  of  Bceotia  contained  fourteen  independent 
cities,  united  in  a  confederacy,  of  which  Thebes  was  the  head. 
The  common  affairs  of  the  league  were  directed  by  magistrates 
named  Boeotarchs,  who  were  elected  annually — two  by  Thebes,  and 
one  by  eacli  of  the  other  cities.  The  governments  were  for  the 
most  part  oligarchies  /  and  it  was  the  constant  policy  of  Thebes  to 
support  the  aristocratic  party  in  the  other  states,  as  a  means  of 
strengthening  her  own  ascendancy.  This  policy  was  resisted  by  a 
few  of  the  cities,  and  especially  by  Platsea,  whose  firm  attachment 
to  Athens,  at  the  cost  of  the  severest  sufferings,  forms  one  of  the 
most  interesting  episodes  in  Grecian  history.     Phocis  lay  west  of 

*  By  one  of  those  curious  concatenations  which  often  make  up  the  history  of  a 
word,  tliis  term  reappears  in  the  vocabulary  of  the  Church  as  Clergy. 


B.C.  500.]  THE   OTHER   STATES   OF   GREECE.  357 

Boeotia,  with  a  small  territory  reaching  to  the  Corinthian  Gulf, 
and  was  chiefly  remarkable  for  its  possession  of  the  oracle  of 
Delphi.  Its  people,  who  were  of  Achsean  origin,  had  as  yet  played 
no  part  in  Grecian  history,  except  in  the  First  Sacred  War, 
which  has  already  been  related.*  Tlie  little  state  of  Doris,  north- 
west of  Phocis,  was  no  otherwise  of  consequence  than  for  its  fame 
as  the  cradle  of  the  Dorian  race.  The  Locrians  were  parted  into  two 
divisions,  differing  in  dialect  and  manners  ;  but  both  were  regarded 
as  mixed  races,  whose  infusion  of  Hellenic  blood  had  but  partially 
tempered  the  rudeness  they  inherited  from  the  Leleges.  The 
Eastern  Locrians,f  on  the  coast  north  of  Phocis  and  opposite 
Euboea,  were  the  more  civilized  of  the  two.  They  appear  in 
Homer  under  their  king  Ajax,  the  son  of  Oileus  :  part  of  them 
were  afterwards  subject  to  Phocis.  The  western  or  Ozolian 
Locrians,  who  inhabited  the  rugged  country  between  the  moun- 
tains of  Corax  and  Parnassus  and  the  Corinthian  Gulf,  were  little 
better  than  mountain  robbers.  The  like  character  was  borne  by 
the  people  of  ^tolia,  which  was  still  only  partially  colonized  by 
the  Hellenic  race.  This  country  had  obtained  some  celebrity  in 
mythical  history ;  and  its  mountain  range  of  Calydon  was  the 
scene  of  the  famous  hunt  of  the  Calydonian  boar  by  the  heroes  of 
the  Argonautic  age.:}:  As  civilization  advanced,  its  cities  formed 
a  federation,  which  became  renowned  in  the  latest  age  of  Grecian 
independence  for  its  antagonism  to  the  AchiBan  League.  West 
of  all  lay  Acarnania,  divided  from  JEtolia  by  the  Acheloiis,  the 
largest  river  of  Greece,  and  having  an  extensive  sea-coast  opposite 
to  the  Ionian  islands.  It  was  peopled  of  old,  like  ^tolia,  by  the 
Leleges,  Curetes,  and  other  wild  races,  among  which  Achaean 
colonists  from  Argos  were  said  to  have  settled  ;  but  they  were  still 
only  a  half  Hellenic  people,  living  by  robbery  and  piracy. 

North  of  the  isthmus  between  the  Maliac  and  Ambracian  Gulfs, 
lay  the  extensive  regions  of  Thessaly  and  Epirus,  of  which  only 
the  former  belonged  to  the  political  aggregate  of  the  Hellenic 
states.     Thessaly  is  a  great  plain,  enclosed  on  every  side  by  lofty 

*  See  p.  329. 

f  These  included  the  two  tribes  of  the  Locri  Epicnemidii  (so-called  from  Mount 
Cnemis)  and  the  Locri  Opuntii,  named  from  their  city  of  Opus. 

If.  One  of  the  stories  connected  with  this  hunt  was  that  of  Ancaeus,  an  Arcadian 
chieftain.  He  was  about  to  taste  a  new  vintage,  and  the  cup  was  already  in  his  hand, 
when  news  was  brought  that  the  hunt  was  up.  He  set  down  the  cup  uutasted,  took  up 
his  boar  spear  and  rushed  out,  and  was  killed  by  the  boar.  Hence  an  old  hexameter 
verse,  which  says — "  There  are  many  things  between  the  edge  of  the  cup  and  of  the 
lip." 


358  THE  HELLENIC   STATES  AND   COLONIES.     [Chap.  XIL 

mountains,  and  watered  by  the  river  Peneius.  It  was  thus  fitted 
by  nature  for  a  great  state,  and  comparatively  severed  from  the 
rest  of  Greece.  The  earliest  inhabitants,  were  of  various  -races. 
The  original  Thessalians  are  said  to  have  been  a  Pelasgian  people 
from  Thesprotia  in  Epirus  ;  but  the  -<^olian  race  predominated  in 
historic  times.  The  inliabitants  like  those  of  Laconia,  were  divided 
into  three  classes ;  the  Thessalian  conquerors,  the  subject  popu- 
lation, and  the  Penestge,  whose  condition  resembled  that  of  the 
Helots.  In  the  earliest  age  they  were  governed  by  Icings,  who 
claimed  a  descent  from  Hercules ;  but,  as  in  the  other  states  of 
Greece,  these  monarchies  were  transformed  into  aristocratic  repub- 
lics. Some  of  the  noble  houses,  as  the  Aleuadse  at  Larissa  and 
the  ScopadfB  at  Cranon,  rivalled  the  tyrants  of  Southern  Greece  in 
power  and  magnificence,  and  attracted  the  greatest  artists  and 
poets  to  their  courts.  The  great  Thessalian  plain  was  divided  into 
four  districts,  called  tetrarchies  (besides  four  others  in  the  moun- 
tains) ;  and  these  were  united  in  a  federation,  chiefly  for  military 
purposes.  When  occasion  required,  they  elected  a  military  chief, 
or  dictator,  with  the  title  of  Tagtis  (Marshal),  whose  authority 
was  supreme  in  all  four  districts.  The  Thessalians  were  represented 
in  the  Amphictyonic  Council.  Their  conduct  in  the  Persian  War 
proves  how  little  interest  they  had  in  the  Commonwealth  of  Greece. 
To  the  north-east  of  Thessaly,  along  the  sea-coast  at  the  foot  of 
Mount  Olympus,  lay  Pieria,  a  district  connected  by  tradition  with 
the  earliest  intellectual  culture  of  the  Greeks.  As  the  Hellenic 
Deities  had  their  home  on  the  summit  of  Olympus,  so  the  Muses 
had  theirs  at  its  foot ;  and  this  too  was  the  country  of  Orpheus."^ 
In  the  historic  times  Pieria  formed  a  part  of  Macedonia,  which  lay 
beyond  the  boundaries  of  Greece,  and  was  peopled  by  Thracian 
and  Illyrian  tribes.  Hellenic  settlers,  however,  migrated  into  the 
southern  part  of  Macedonia,  and  intermarried  with  the  barbarians, 
forming  a  race  who  spoke  a  rude  dialect  in  which  Doric  forms 
predominated.  This  dialect,  transported  into  Syria  and  Egypt  by 
the  followers  of  Alexander,  became  a  chief  element  in  the  Helle- 
nistic Greek,  which  was  spoken  throughout  tlie  East,  and  which 
has  been  handed  down  to  us  in  the  Septuagint  and  New  Testa- 
ment. The  Macedonian  monarchy  is  said  to  have  been  founded 
about  the  seventh  century  n.c.  ;  but  its  history  is  altogether 
obscure  till  the  epoch  of  the  Persian  Wars,  when  the  reigning  king 
was  Amyntas  I.     The  royal  house  claimed  to  be  Greeks  of  the 

*  As  Pieria  belonged  geographically  to  Thrace,  the  later  legends  transported  Or- 
pheus into  the  heart  of  that  country,  where  the  people  were  entirely  barbarians. 


B.C.  500.]  COLONIES   ON  THE   WEST   COAST.  359 

Heraclid  family ;  and  Alexander  I.  was  not  admitted  to  contend  at 
the  Olympic  games  until  he  had  proved  his  descent  from  Temenus 
the  king  of  Argos.  This  resemblance  to  the  position  of  the  house 
of  Romanofi'  is  only  one  point  of  the  curious  parallel  between  the 
relations  of  Macedonia  to  Greece  and  those  of  Russia  to  Western 
Europe. 

West  of  Thessaly  and  Macedonia  lay  Epirus,  that  is,  the  Jfain- 
land,  a  name  evidently  applied  to  the  region  by  the  Greeks  of  the 
Ionian  islands.  Here,  as  we  have  already  seen,  the  Pelasgians  of 
Molossus  preserved  the  most  ancient  worship  of  the  Dodonsean 
Jove,  whose  oracles  were  uttered  from  a  grove  of  sacred  oaks.  The 
country  was  occupied  by  a  number  of  different  tribes  under  their 
own  princes  ;  till  at  length  the  kings  of  Molossus,  who  claimed 
their  descent  from  Pyrrhus,  the  son  of  Achilles,  founded  the 
monarchy  which  shook  the  power  of  Rome.  Lastly,  the  chain  of 
islands  (now  called  Ionian,  from  the  ancient  name  of  the  sea 
which  washes  the  western  shores  of  Greece),  stretching  from 
Corcyra  off  Epirus  to  Zacynthus  off  Elis,  had  already  been  peopled 
by  the  Achajans  and  ^olians  in  the  heroic  age,  and  were  now 
occupied,  in  part,  by  flourishing  Dorian  colonies,  the  offspring  of 
the  maritime  enterprise  of  Corinth.  We  have  already  had  occa- 
sion to  speak  of  Corcyra  as  the  most  important  of  these  colonies, 
and  of  others  which  were  founded  by  the  Corinthians  and  Corcy- 
rseans  jointly  along  the  same  shores ;  Leucas,  on  the  island  off 
Acarnania,  and  Anactorium  on  tlie  opposite  shore,  near  the  cape 
long  after  renowned  under  the  name  of  Actium  ;  and  further  north, 
on  the  coast  of  the  wild  Illyrians,  Apollonia,  a  great  seat  of 
commerce  and  learning  under  the  Romans,  and  Epidamnus, 
famous  among  the  causes  of  the  Peloponnesian  War.* 

The  relations  between  these  colonies  and  Corinth  exhibit  to  us 
in  practice  thcprinciples  of  Greek  colonization.  A  colony  was  no 
mere  body  of  outcasts  thrown  off  from  a  state  to  find  a  home  where 
and  how  they  could,  at  one  time  the  refuse  of  society,  got  rid  of 
alike  for  poverty  or  for  crime,  at  another,  the  exiles  for  conscience 
sake,  of  whom  their  country  was  not  worthy.  The  former  home 
of  the  colonists  was  truly  named  their  "  mother  city  ^\r)ietropoUs) ;  f 
the  colony  was  a  "  removal  of  their  homes  "  (apmcia) ;  they  went 

*  Under  its  other  name  of  Dyrrachium,  which  the  Romans  adopted  to  avoid  the 
ill-omened  sound  of  Epidamnus,  it  became  the  chief  landing-place  for  voyagers  from 
Italy  to  Greece.  ^, 

f  Few  inaccuracies  of  language  are  more  striking  than  the  application  of  this  word 
to  the  capital  of  a  nation,  unless  perhaps  the  calling  the  country  districts  prwnnceR 


360  THE   HELLENIC   STATES  AND   COLONIES.     [Chap.  XIL 

forth  under  a  duly  appointed  leader  {(Ecist,  that  is,  one  who  forms 
a  settlement  or  home),  who,  in  the  oldest  times,  was  generally  a 
prince  of  the  royal  family,  carrying  with  them  their  country's 
gods,  their  city's  laws,  and  the  sacred  fire  w^hich  always  burnt  on 
the  hearth  of  the  Prytaneum.  When  a  colony  grew  strong  enough 
to  send  out  new  settlements,  an  Q^cist  was  sought  from  the  mother 
city  ;  and  the  new  colony  regarded  this  city  as  their  metropolis. 
The  bond  between  a  mother  city  and  her  colonies  was  most  sacred, 
and  a  war  such  as  those  between  Corcyra  and  Corinth  had  the 
nature  of  sacrilege.  The  colonists  sent  deputations  to  the  great 
festivals  of  the  metropolis,  and  received  her  citizens  with  the 
highest  honors.  The  CEcist  was  deified  after  his  death  as  the 
representative  of  the  mother  city. 

On  the  opposite  side  of  northern  Greece,  Corinth  planted  the 
colony  of  Potidaea,  which  became  another  cause  of  the  Pelopon- 
nesian  War.  It  stood  on  the  isthmus  of  the  westernmost  of  the 
three  long  and  lofty  promontories  that  jut  out  from  the  peninsula 
between  the  Thermaic  and  Strymonic  Gulfs,  at  the  north-western 
corner  of  the  ^gsean.  This  region,  called  from  its  position,  "  the 
parts  adjoining  Thrace,"  was  also  named  Chalcidice,  from  the 
numerous  colonies  planted  there  by  the  Eub'oean  city  of  Chalcis,  as 
well  as  by  her  neighbor  Eretria.  It  became  the  scene  of  some  of 
the  greatest  events,  both  in  the  Peloponnesian  War  and  in  the 
contest  with  Philip  of  Macedon.  Other  colonies  extended  all 
along  the  coasts  of  Thrace,  on  the  vEgsean,  the  Hellespont,  the 
Propontis  and  the  Euxine,  as  far  as  Istria,  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Danube,  a  settlement  of  the  Milesians.  Of  these  we  can  only  stay 
to  mention  the  cities  which  made  the  Thracian  Chersonese  entirely 
Greek,  the  Samian  colony  of  Perinthus  on  the  northern  shore 
of  the  Propontis,  and  the  Megarian  settlement  of  Byzantium, 
at  the  entrance  of  the  Thracian  Bosporus,  long  fifterwards  the 
capital  of  Constantine.*  The  commercial  enterprise  of  the 
lonians  led  them  as  far  as  the  inhospitable  shores  of  Scythia. 
Miletus  planted  the  colony  of  Olbia  on  the  H^-panis  {Bug),'\  which 
became  a  great  port  for  the  corn  of  the  Ukraine.  The  Dorians  of 
Heraclea  in  Pontus  founded  the  city  of  Chersonesus  on  the  cape 
of  the  same  name,  which  terminates  the  peninsula,  now  so  well 
known  to  us,  of  Sebastopol  in  the  Crimea.:}:     The  wild  spot  was 

•  Byzantium  was  colonized  from  Mcgara  in  B.C.  658. 

f  Its  ruins  are  still  to  be  seen  at  Siomor^il,  about  twelve  miles  below  Xicbolaev. 
If.  This  peninsula  was  called,  from  its  colonizers,  Chersonesus  Heracleotica,  and  also 
the  Little  Chersonese,  in  contradistinction  to  the  Crimea  itself,  the  Chersonesus  Taurica. 


B.C.  500.]  COLONIES   ON  THE  EUXINE.  361 

already  celebrated  in  the  legend  of  Orestes  as  the  seat  of  the 
savage  worship  of  the  Tanric  Artemis,  with  her  human  sacrifices. 
Other  settlements  were  planted  on  the  north-eastern  shore  of  the 
Euxine,  chiefly  by  the  Milesians,  who  founded  Phasis,  at  the 
mouth  of  tlie  river  of  the  same  name.  The  southern  shore  of  the 
Euxine,  along  the  north  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  was  studded  with 
Greek  colonies,  the  chief  of  which  were  Cyzicus,  on  the  Propontis, 
Chalcedon,  opposite  Byzantium,  and  Heraclea  Pontica,*  both 
founded  by  the  Megarians  ;  Sinope,f  which  was  twice  colonized 
from  Miletus,  having  been  destroyed  in  the  great  Cimmerian  inva- 
sion, and  which,  after  being  long  the  greatest  seat  of  Greek  com- 
merce in  the  Euxine,  became  the  splendid  capital  of  Mithridates ; 
and  Trapezus  {Trebizond)^  planted  by  Sinope  on  the  confines  of 
Armenia.  "We  have  been  particular  in  noticing  these  colonies  on 
the  Euxine,  to  show  how  firm  a  hold  the  Greeks  had  gained,  in 
the  eighth,  seventh,  and  sixth  centuries  e.g.,  of  regions  till  recently 
little  known  to  ourselves.  The  remains  of  Hellenic  civilization, 
of  the  kingdoms  of  Pontus  and  the  Bosporus,  and  of  the  Koman 
Empire,  may  be  traced  like  successive  deposits  beneath  the  deluge 
of  barbarism  which  overwhelmed  those  shores.:}: 

Concerning  the  great  colonies  on  the  western  shores  of  Asia 
Minor,  little  need  be  added  to  the  traditions  already  related  of 
their  first  foundation  in  the  heroic  age.§  At  the  beginning  of  the 
]iistoric  period,  we  find  them  further  advanced  in  civilization  than 
most  states  of  the  mother  country.  The  fresh  free  life  of  a  new 
colony  always  favours  the  popular  element  in  a  state ;  and  the 
aristocratic  governments  were  abolished  in  these  settlements  at  a 
very  early  period,  while  the  federal  bond  between  those  of  the 
same  race  was  maintained  more  closely  than  in  Greece.  Their 
relations  with  the  Asiatic  nations  seem  to  have  been  peaceful  from 
the  first ;  ||  the  Asiatics  perceiving  the  advantage  they  could  gain 
from  the  maritime  activity  of  the  Greeks  ;  and  the  Greeks  being 
stimulated  to  commerce  by  the  wealth  of  the  Asiatics.  Moreover, 
the  ancient  civilization  of  Asia  was  imparted  to  a  people  fitted, 
above  every  other  race,  to  give  it  a  new  and  energetic  development ; 
and  music,  poetry,  and  art  made  their  first  great  advances  among 

*  Now  Harakli. 

f  Now  Sinoub. 

\  The  last  example  of  such  barbarian  ruin  was  the  destruction  of  the  beautiful 
Greek  remains  at  Kertch,  the  ancient  capital  of  Bosporus,  in  the  Crimean  war. 

§  See  pp.  324—326. 

II  The  war  of  Troy  cannot  be  considered  an  exception,  as  we  are  ignorant  of  ita 
real  character,  and  it  precedes  the  age  of  colonization. 


363  THE   HELLENIC   STATES  AND   COLONIES.     [Chap.  XH. 

the  Asiatic  Greeks.  The  lonians  rapidly  outgrew  tlie  other 
colonists  in  wealth  and  enterprise,  and  Miletus,  their  most  powerful 
city,  is  said  to  have  planted  no  less  than  eighty  colonies.  The 
greatness  of  Ephesus  was  a  later  growth,  due  to  the  extensive 
territory  which  she  obtained  from  the  Lydians,  and  to  the  splendid 
temple  of  Artemis,  which  was  built  and  enriched  by  the  contribu- 
tions both  of  Greeks  and  Asiatics.  It  is  enough  to  refer  to  the 
colonies  along  the  shores  of  Lycia,  Pamphylia,  and  Cilicia,  as  far  as 
the  Gulf  of  Issus  and  Cyprus.  We  have  already  seen  how  the 
colonies  on  the  west  coast  were  subjugated,  first  by  Croesus,  and 
more  completely  by  Cyrus.  Their  condition  under  Darius  forms 
the  starting  point  of  the  history  of  the  Persian  "Wars. 

Colonization  was  almost  equally  active  beyond  the  sea  that 
washes  the  western  shores  of  Greece,  on  the  coasts  of  Si<;ily  and 
Southern  Italy,  regions  occupied  in  the  earliest  times  by  the 
barbarian  Sicani  and  Siceli.  The  south  of  Italy,  originally  known 
to  the  Greeks  as  Hesperia  (the  Land  of  the  Evening  Star), 
obtained  the  name  of  Magna  Grcecia,  or  Great  Greece.  This  was 
the  scene  of  the  fabled  golden  age,  under  the  rule  of  the  ancient 
deities  expelled  by  Jove, 

"  And  who,  with  Saturn  old, 
Fled  over  Hadria  to  the  Hesperian  fields, 
And  o'er  the  Celtic  roamed  the  utmost  isles." 

Here,  too,  were  placed  those  colonies,  founded  by  the  heroes  who 
had  fought  at  Troy,  of  which  Fenelon  has  made  so  ingenious  a  use. 
Passing  over  these  legends,  the  earliest  known  settlement  was  the 
^olic  colony  of  Cumae,  on  the  northern  promontory  of  the  Bay  of 
l^aples,  founded  jointly  by  Cyme  in  the  Asiatic  ^olis,  and  by 
Chalcis  in  Euboea.  It  was  the  northernmost  of  the  colonies  which 
fringed  the  whole  coast  down  to  the  straits  of  Messina,  and  up 
again  round  the  Bay  of  Tarentum  to  the  lapygian  promontory.  A 
few  only  of  these  can  be  noticed : — Parthenope,  a  colony  from 
Cumae,  famous  to  the  present  day  under  its  later  name  of  Neapolis 
{i.e.  the  JVew  City,  Napoli.,  Naplei) ;  Posidonia  (Paestum),  a 
colony  of  Sybaris,  renowned  for  its  temples  of  pure  Doric  archi- 
tecture ;  Elea,  already  mentioned  in  the  story  of  the  migration  of 
the  Phocoeans  ;  *  Phegium,  on  the  strait  of  Messina,  a  Chaleidian 
colony;  then,  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  "toe,"  Locri  Epize- 
phyrii,  built  on  Cape  Zephyrium  by  a  body  of  Locrian  Freebooters 
(e.g.  683),  to  whom  the  legislator  Zaleucus  gave  the  first  written 

*  Chap.  X.,  p.  27Y. 


B.C.  500.]     COLONIES  IN  MAGNA   GR.ECIA  AND   SICILY.  363 

code  enacted  in  any  Greek  state  (b.c.  GQ^^)/'  Croton  and  Sjbaris 
deserve  more  particular  attention.  They  were  among  the  oldest 
Achaean  colonies  on  this  coast,  Sybaris  having  been  founded  in 
B.C.  720,  and  Croton  in  b.c.  710.  Both  obtained  dominion  from 
shore  to  shore  of  the  Calabrian  peninsula.  The  wealth  of  Sybaris 
tempted  it  to  a  luxury  which  has  given  the  word  sybarite  to  the 
European  vocabulary.  Croton  enjoys  the  better  fame  of  its 
physicians  and  Olympic  victors,  including 

"  Ilim  who  of  old  would  rend  the  oak," 

and  was  caught  by  its  rebound,  a  prey  to  the  wild  beasts  ;  and  the 
far  higher  honor  of  having  been  the  chosen  residence  of  the 
Samian  philosopher  Pythagoras  (about  b.c.  540 — 510).  The 
rivalry  between  the  two  cities  broke  out  into  a  war,  in  which  the 
forces  of  Croton  were  commanded  by  the  athlete  Milo,  and  which 
ended  in  the  utter  destruction  of  Sybaris  (b.  c.  510).  The  Spartan 
colony  of  Taras,  or  Tarentum,  at  the  headof  the  gulf  named  after 
it,  became  now  the  most  powerful  city  of  Magna  Graecia.  But  the 
destruction  of  Sybaris  proved  a  fatal  blow  to  the  power  of  the 
Greeks  in  general,  and  the  Samnites  and  Lucanians,  advancing 
from  Central  Italy,  took  some  of  the  cities,  and  deprived  the  rest 
of  their  inland  territories.  Our  epoch  of  b.c.  500  coincides  fairly 
with  the  beginning  of  their  decline. 

The  Greek  colonies  of  Sicily  are  of  special  interest  for  the  length 
of  time  that  some  of  them  maintained  their  power,  chieily  under 
the  despotic  form  of  government.  The  island  which  Homer  calls 
Thrinacriaf  was  already  famous  in  the  mythical  age.  All  know 
the  adventure  of  Ulysses  with  the  one-eyed  Cyclops,  Polyphemus. 
The  volcano  of  Etna,  which  would  be  a  striking  object  to  mariners, 
was  imagined  to  be  both  the  forge  of  the  god  Hephaestus,  and  the 
scene  of  the  punishment  of  the  giant  Typhoeus,  who  lay  stretched 
out  beneath  the  whole  volcanic  region  of  Calabria.  The  earliest 
credible  accounts  represent  it  as  occupied  by  the  Sicani  or  Siceli^ 


*  The  code  of  Zaleucus  vied  in  severity  with  the  laws  which  Draco  gave  the  Athe- 
nians forty  years  later.  It  was  observed  so  strictly,  that  the  mover  of  an  alteration 
had  to  speak  literally  with  a  rope  round  his  neck,  and  was  forthwith  strangled  if  his 
motion  failed.  Zaleucus  is  said  to  have  paid  the  penalty  of  an  eye,  to  save  his  son 
from  losing  both  eyes,  in  accordance  with  the  law  ;  and  at  last  to  have  put  himself  to 
death  on  discovering  that  he  had  committed  an  offense  which  his  own  law  made 
capital. 

f  Other  early  forms  are  Trinacria  and  Trinacris,  all  signifying  the  land  of  the  Three 
Uapes.     So  the  Roman  poets  call  it  Triquetra,  i.e.,  triangular. 


364  THE   HELLENIC   STATES  AND   COLONIES.     [Chap.  XH. 

probably  a  Celtic  people.'''  With  the  light  thrown  on  Homer's 
fable  of  Polyphemus  by  the  character  of  the  peasantry  in  the 
historic  age,  we  may  perhaps  conclude  that  the  earliest  Sicilians 
were  a  pastoral  people ;  at  all  events,  they  seem  to  have  given  but 
little  trouble  to  the  Greek  settlers.  Sicily  was  colonized  by  the 
same  states,  w^hose  activity  in  this  work  we  have  before  witnessed, 
the  Chalcidians,  Megarians,  and  Corinthians  ;  but  one  of  the  most 
famous  cities,  Gela,  was  a  joint  colony  from  Ehodes  and  Crete. 
The  preponderance  of  the  Dorian  element  had  much  to  do  with 
the  subsequent  history  of  the  cities.  On  the  east  coast  were  the 
Achaean  and  yEolian  settlements  of  Zancle,  afterwards  Messana, 
founded  by  the  Chalcidians  and  Cumseans ;  Naxos,  the  oldest  of 
all,  founded  jointly  by  the  Chalcidians  and  Megarians,  under  an 
Athenian  oecist  (b.c.  T25) ;  Catana  and  Leontini,  colonies  of 
Naxos  (b.c.  730)  ;  and  Hyblsean  Megara,  founded  by  Megara  (b.c. 
T28).  On  the  southern  part  of  the  same  coast  was  the  famous 
Syracuse,  founded  by  the  Corinthians  only  one  year  later  than 
ISTaxos  (b.c.  734).  The  remaining  Dorian  colonies  occupied  the 
southern  coast ;  the  chief  of  them  being  Gela  (b.c.  690),  its 
colony  Acragas  or  Agrigentum  (b.c.  582).  On  the  same  coast 
westward  was  Selinus,  a  colony  of  the  Hybloean  Megara  (b.c  G30). 
The  only  Greek  settlement  on  the  north  coast  was  Himera,  a  colony 
of  Zancle ;  west  of  which  lay  the  Phoenician  colony  of  Panormus 
{Palermo),  and  the  Tyrrhenian  cities  of  Egesta  and  Eryx.  The 
free  scope  given  to  the  settlers  by  the  retirement  of  the  Sicels 
inland,  and  the  vast  fertility  which  caused  the  island  to  be  sacred  to 
Demeter,f  led  to  the  rapid  growth  of  these  colonies  ;  but  their  con- 
nection with  the  general  history  of  Greece  only  begins  with  the 
usurpation  of  Gelon  at  Syracuse,  in  b.c  485,  immediately  after 
which  began  their  first  hostilities  with  the  Carthaginians,  who  had 
meanwhile  occupied  the  western  portion  of  the  island .  Agrigentiuu 
alone  had  as  yet  become  famous,  and  that  chiefly  for  the  cruelties 
of  its  tyrant,  Phalaris,  who  caused  his  victims  to  be  roasted  alive 
in  a  brazen  bull.  His  usurpation  must  have  followed  close  upon 
the  foundation  of  the  colony  in  b.c  582,  as  he  was  contemporary 
with  Pisistratus.  Ilis  victories  over  his  neighbours  made  Agri- 
gentum the  first  state  of  Sicily  ;  but  he  met  his  well  merited  fate 
in  an  insurrection  of  his  subjects.     The  truth  of  the  story  of  the 

*  Some  writers  distinguisli  the  two  tribes,  placing  the  Sicani  in  the  west  and  the 
Siceli  in  the  cast.     The  Siceli  or  Itali  of  Southern  Italy  were  the  same  race. 

f  Hence  the  scene  of  the  abduction  of  her  daughter  Persephone  (Proserpine)  bj 
Pluto  was  placed  in  Sicily. 


B.C.  500.]     COLONIES  IN  GAUL,    SPAIN,   AND  AFRICA.  363 

brazen  bull  is  proved  by  tbe  contemporary  autbority  of  Pindar,  and 
tlie  figure  itself  was  preserved  at  Agrigentum.* 

To  the  west  of  Italy  and  Sicily  tbe  shores  of  the  Mediterranean 
were  occupied  by  numerous  Phoenician  colonies ;  the  fleets  of 
Carthage  commanded  the  sea ;  and  her  jealous  policy  left  little 
room  for  the  intrusion  of  other  nations.  But  for  all  this,  the 
enterprise  of  the  Ionian  Phoccea  had  founded  on  the  coast  of  Gaul, 
east  of  the  mouth  of  the  Rhone,  the  famous  city  of  the  Massalia,f 
which  in  its  turn  planted  several  settlements  along  the  Ligurian 
coast,  and  at  the  eastern  foot  of  the  Pyrenees.  Firmly  united 
under  the  lead  of  Massalia,  and  possessing  a  powerful  navy,  these 
distant  colonies  held  their  own  against  the  attacks  of  Carthage, 
extended  the  commerce  of  Greece  to  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  and 
brought  the  Celts  of  Gaul  and  Spain  in  contact  with  a  civilization 
which  they  could  never  have  learned  from  the  Carthaginians.  We 
have  already  noticed  the  Phocsean  colony  of  Alalia,  or  Aleria,  in 
Corsica. 

Of  the  Meditermnean  coast  of  Africa,  the  Carthaginian  domin- 
ion extended  over  the  western  half,  from  the  straits  to  the  bottom 
of  the  Greater  Syrtis,  while  Egypt  claimed  the  coast  of  the  Libyan 
Desert  west  of  the  Delta.:}:  But  between  the  two  empires  the 
Dorian  Greeks  had  established  themselves  on  the  beautiful  penin- 
sula directly  opposite  to  Pelojjonnesus,  which  received  from  their 
chief  city  the  name  of  Cyrenaica.  A  body  of  settlers  from  the 
island  of  Thera,  itself  a  colony  of  Sparta,  were  led  thither  by 
Battus,  who  built  Cyrene  (about  e.g.  630),  and  founded  a  royal 
dynasty,  which  reigned  for  eight  generations.§  Cyrene  enjoyed 
one  of  the  fairest  sites  on  the  face  of  the  earth ;  standing  about 
ten  miles  from  the  sea,  and  1800  feet  above  its  level,  it  is  sheltered 
by  the  table-land  behind  from  the  hot  blasts  of  the  Sahara,  and  is 
open  on  the  north  to  the  breezes  of  the  Mediterranean,  over  whose 

*  The  spurious  ' '  Letters  of  Phalaris  "  gave  rise  to  one  of  the  interesting  literary 
controversies  of  modern  times.  In  his  masterly  "  Dissertation  upon  the  Epistles  of 
Phalaris,"  the  great  scholar,  Dr.  Bentley,  not  only  proved  them  a  forgery  of  later  date, 
but  threw  a  flood  of  light  on  the  literary  history  of  the  age,  and  especially  upon  the 
origin  of  Greek  dramatic  poetry. 

j[  In  Latin  Masillia,  now  Marseilles.     The  date  of  its  colonization  was  b.c.  600. 

\  Concerning  the  Greek  settlements  in  Egypt  under  Psammetichus  and  Amasis,  see 
chap.  vii.  pp.  131,  137. 

§  The  kings  with  their  probable  dates  were  as  follows : — (1)  Battus  I.,  b.c.  630 — 
599 ;  (2)  Arcesilaus  I.,  B.C.  599—583 ;  (3)  Battus  II.,  the  Happy,  b.c.  583—560 ;  {4j 
Arcesilaus  II.,  the  Oppressive,  b.c.  560 — 550  ;  (5)  Battus  III.,  the  Lame,  b.c.  550 — 530 ; 
(6)  Arcesilaus  III.,  B.C.  530—510 ;  (7)  Battus  IV. ;  (8)  Arcesilaus  IV.  from  before  B.C. 
466  to  B.C.  450. 


366  THE   HELLENIC   STATES  AND   COLONIES.     [Chap.  XIJ. 

blue  waters  it  commands  a  glorious  prosjiect.  It  was  well  supplied 
witli  water  from  the  fountain  of  Cjre,  which  ran  down  to  the  sea 
through  a  beautiful  ravine,  along  which  a  well-paved  road  led 
to  tlie  port  of  Apollonia.  The  terraces  descending  from  the 
mountain  to  the  shore,  on  one  of  which  C}Tene  stood,  w^ere 
covered  wdth  the  richest  variety  of  luxuriant  vegetation ;  and  the 
different  harvests  lasted  for  eight  out  of  tlie  twelve  months.  Thus 
favoured,  the  colony  attracted  settlers  from  different  parts  of 
Greece,  and  obtained  a  wide  dominion  over  the  Libyan  tribes.  To 
the  w^cst  her  territories  met  those  at  Carthage  at  the  bottom  of  the 
Great  Syrtis,  the  boundary  being  marked  by  the  "  Altars  of  the 
Philseni,"  concerning  which  Sallust  relates  a  curious  legend.  The 
two  states  had  agreed  to  settle  their  boundary  at  the  spot  where 
two  parties  should  meet,  having  started  at  the  same  time  from 
either  city.  The  Carthaginian  envoys,  two  brothers  named 
the  Philoeni,*  made  the  better  speed,  and  performed  much  more 
than  half  the  distance.  The  Cyren[eans  accused  them  of  having 
started  before  the  appointed  time,  but  proposed  to  abide  by  the 
place  of  meeting  if  the  others  would  consent  to  be  buried  alive 
there  in  the  sand,  or  else  that  they  themselves  would  advance  as 
far  as  they  pleased  and  then  suffer  the  same  fate.  The  Philajni 
sacrificed  their  lives  for  their  country,  which  rewarded  them  witli 
divine  honours. 

Cyrene  reached  the  height  of  her  prosperity  under  the  third 
king,  Battus  the  Happy,  who  repulsed  the  attack  of  Apries,  king 
of  Eg}^t,  B.C.  STO.f  But  the  tyranny  of  Arcesilaus  II.  drove  out 
a  large  party  under  his  brothers,  who  founded  the  new  city  of 
Barca,  and  separated  the  western  part  of  the  peninsula  from  the 
territory  of  Cyrene  (about  B.C.  560).  The  popular  party  found 
leaders,  Avho  put  restrictions  on  the  royal  power  ;  civil  war  ensued  ; 
Arcesilaus  III.  tried  to  keep  his  crown  by  submitting  as  a  tribu- 
tary to  Cambyses  (b.c.  525),  but  he  was  forced  to  fly  to  his 
father-in-law  Alazir,  the  king  of  Barca,  and  both  were  killed 
there  by  the  Barcoeans  and  the  Cyrenjean  exiles.  Pheretima,  the 
mother  of  Arcesilaus,  who  was  reigning  at  Cyrene,  sought  the 
means  of  vengeance  from  Aryandes,  the  satrap  of  Egj^^t  under 
Cambyses.  He  sent  his  whole  army  against  Barca,  under  Amasis, 
who,  after  a  long  siege,  took  the  city  by  a  strange  fraud.  Sum- 
moning the  people  of  Barca  to  a  parley,  he  agreed  to  withdraw  his 

*  Evidently  no  runic  name,  but  a  Greek  epithet,  signifying  "  lovers  of  praise." 
\  Comp.  chap',  vii.,  pp.  134 — 6 


B.C.  500.]  THE   COLONIES   OF   CYRENAICA.  367 

army  on  payment  of  a  fair  sum  to  tlie  king,  and  an  oath  ratified 
the  capitulation,  "  as  long  as  the  ground  beneath  their  feet  stood 
firm."  ISTow  Amasis  had  so  contrived  that  the  parties  to  the 
treaty  stood  over  a  hidden  trench  ;  and,  the  moment  the  gates  of 
Barca  were  thrown  open,  the  props  that  supported  the  covering  of 
the  trench  were  removed,  and  with  them  the  sanction  of  the  oath  ! 
The  revenge  of  Pheretima  was  glutted  with  unheard  of  cruelties, 
but  she  afterwards  perished  by  a  death  like  that  of  Herod  Agrippa. 
The  great  body  of  the  Barcseans  were  carried  off  to  the  city  of  the 
same  name  in  Bactria,  and  Cyrene  itself  narrowly  escaped  a  sack 
by  the  retreating  Persians  (b.c.  510).  Thus,  at  the  epoch  of  the 
Persian  "Wars,  the  colonies  of  Cyrenaica  were  under  the  supremacy 
of  Darius,  who  assigned  them  to  the  satrapy  of  Egypt.  The  tie, 
never  close,  was  dissolved  by  the  rebellion  of  Egypt.  Two  more  of 
the  Battiadse  reigned  at  Cyrene  ;  Battus  lY.,  whose  name  only  is 
known  to  us  ;  and  Arcesilaus  IV.,  whose  victory  in  the  Pythian 
chariot  race  is  celebrated  by  Pindar  (b.c.  4:6&).  Upon  his  death, 
about  B.C.  450,  a  democracy  was  established.  Cyrenaica  became 
again  of  consequence  under  the  Ptolemies. 

Such  was  the  wide  extent,  not  of  the  Hellenic  empire,  for  it  was 
the  peculiar  distinction  of  Hellas  from  the  other  great  powers  of 
the  earth,  that  it  had  neither  the  outward  unity  and  force,  nor  the 
inner  vices,  of  a  great  empire.  From  the  central  seat  of  the 
nation's  life  in  Attica  and  the  Peloponnesus,  the  Greeks  looked 
eastward  over  the  ^gsean,  and  westward  over  the  Ionian  Sea,  to 
shores  peopled  with  their  offspring,  who  were  already  before  them 
in  the  gentler  arts  of  life.  Commanding  the  centre  of  that  great 
inland  sea,  which  was  for  many  ages  the  highway  of  commerce 
and  civilization,  they  had  planted  their  settlements  on  its  shores 
from  Cyprus  to  Marseilles,  and  from  the  Crimea  to  Cyrene.  All 
these  states  formed  the  one  great  whole  called  Hellas,  and  no 
map  of  Hellas  deserves  the  name  which  does  not  include  them 
all.*  They  not  only  spoke  the  same  language,  and  practised  the 
same  customs  and  religious  rites,  but  they  preserved,  as  we  have 
seen,  a  real  union,  by  means  of  their  great  festivals  and  their 
active  intercourse.  The  philosopher  of  Samos  teaching  at  Croton, — 
the  exiles  of  Phocsea  seeking  new  abodes  in  the  Tyrrhenian  Sea, — 
the  lyric  poet  of  Thebes  celebrating  the  Pythian  victory  of  an 
African  prince, — the  citizen  first  of  Halicarnassus,  then  of  Athens, 

*  For  the  best  representation  of  the  Grecian  lands,  in  whole  and  in  detail,  the 
reader  is  referred  to  Kiepert's  great  Atlas  von  Hellas. 


368  THE   HELLENIC   STATES   AND   COLONIES.     [Chap.  XIL 

and  then  of  Tlmrii  in  Italy,  wandering  to  the  furthest  colonies 
and  the  nations  beyond  their  bounds,  to  collect  the  information 
which  delighted  all  who  could  read  Greek,  w^hether  they  heard 
him  read  it  at  Olympia  or  not ;  — these  are  a  few  of  the  practical 
signs  of  Hellenic  union.  These  wide  regions  were  occupied  by  a 
number  of  small  states,  each  forming,  within  its  narrow  limits,  a 
complete  political  microcosm ;  and  nearly  all  had  wrought  out  for 
themselves  the  series  of  jjolitical  experiments  which  lead  from  the 
simple  order  of  a  patriarchal  monarchy  to  the  energetic  freedom  of 
democracy.  To  have  welded  Hellas  into  an  empire  would  have 
stifled  her  true  life,  and  frustrated  the  part  she  had  to  play  in  the 
history  of  the  world.  For  the  performance  of  that  work  she  was 
truly,  what  we  have  just  called  her,  a  great  power,  a  power 
miglitier  than  any  of  the  eastern  empires.  Her  domain  was  the 
mind  and  heart  of  man;  and  to  cultivate  that,  the  first  necessity 
was  to  keep  herself  free  from  the  repressing  force  of  empire.  To 
cultivate  the  imagination  by  poetry,  the  understanding  by  philo- 
sophy, the  taste  by  art ; — to  work  out  the  great  problems  of  social 
life  and  government,  and  to  try  if  liberty  and  order  could  be 
reconciled ; — all  this  required  a  freedom  of  the  very  kind  which 
was  enjoyed  in  the  Greek  republics.  If  that  freedom  proved 
dangerous  to  themselves,  it  bore  precious  and  lasting  fruits  for  all 
the  world.  It  must  never  be  forgotton  that,  ranking  next  to, 
though  immeasurably  below,  the  higher  source  of  spiritual  culture, 
Hollas  was  the  parent  of  intellectual  and  [esthetic  life  for  all  sub- 
sequent ages  of  the  world.  It  is  her  alphabet  that  has  become  the 
prevailing  medium  of  knowledge ;  her  poetry  has  inspired  the 
muse  of  successors  who  have  never  been  able  to  surpass  it ;  her 
first  great  historian  is  still  called  the  father  of  all  history ;  her 
philosophy  has  prescribed  the  modes  of  intellectual  enquiry,  and 
has  exerted  a  vast  influence  in  the  higher  province  of  religion  ;  her 
art  reached  the  standard  of  perfect  beauty,  and  helped  to  fonn 
even  those  styles  which  are  often  regarded  as  the  most  opposed  to 
it  in  principle.  In  a  word  she  was  the  source  and  pattern  of  the 
highest  forms  of  life  to  which  man  can  attain  by  his  own  free 
energies  ;  and  her  faults  and  vices  do  but  prove  that  a  still  higher 
influence  is  needed  for  the  perfection  of  humanity. 

But  to  suppose  that  even  this  higher  influence  was  entirely 
absent  from  such  vigorous  forms  of  life,  would  be  to  take  a  view 
of  history  narrower  than  than  of  the  Apostle,  when  he  quoted  the 
testimony  of  a  Greek  poet,  that  all  men  are  the  offspring  of  God, 
and  declared  to  the  Athenians  that  the  Unknown  God  whom  they 


B.C.  700—500.]     PROGRESS   OF   GREEK  LITERATURE.  369 

•worshipped  was  the  true  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth.  Viewed  in  this 
light,  their  intellectual  gifts  to  us  acquire  a  double  value :  they  are 
an  inheritance,  as  a  living  poet  has  suggested,  like  that  which  the 
heathens  of  Palestine  left  for  the  chosen  people  to  enter  on  : — 

"  And  now  another  Canaan  yields 
To  thine  all-conquering  ark  ; — 
Fly  from  the  '  old  poetic  fields,' 
Ye  Paynim  shadows  dark  ! 
Immortal  Greece,  dear  laud  of  glorious  lays, 
Lo  !  here  the  unknown  God  of  thine  unconscious  praise. 
"  The  olive  wreath,  the  ivied  wand, 
'  The  sword  in  myrtles  drest,' 
Each  legend  of  the  shadowy  strand 
Now  wakes  a  vision  blest : 
As  little  children  lisp  and  tell  of  Heaven, 
So  thoughts  beyond  their  thoughts  to  those  high  bards  were  given. 
"  There's  not  a  strain  to  memory  dear, 
Xor  flower  in  classic  grove  ; 
There's  not  a  sweet  note  warbled  here 
But  minds  us  of  thy  love  : 
0  Lord,  our  Lord,  and  spoiler  of  our  foes. 
There  is  no  light  but  thine  :  with  Thee  all  beauty  glows."  * 

It  belongs  to  the  province  of  more  special  histories  to  trace  in 
detail  the  advance  of  Grecian  literature,  philosophy,  and  art  down 
to  the  epoch  of  the  Persian  Wars.  We  have  already  noticed  the 
early  progress  of  Epic  Poetry,  both  of  the  heroic  type  of  Homer, 
and  the  didactic  type  of  Hesiod.  Whatever  doubts  exist  about 
the  former,  the  latter  was  a  real  personage,  and  his  poems  tell  us 
something  of  his  history.  He  was  a  native  of  Ascra,  in  Boeotia, 
but  his  father  came  from  Cyme  in  ^olis,  so  that  in  him  too  we 
may  trace  the  Asiatic  influence.  His  probable  date  is  about  e.g. 
735.  The  chief  literary  product  of  the  Tth  and  6th  centuries 
B.C.  was  Lyric  Poetry,  using  the  term  in  that  wide  sense  which 
includes  nearly  all  the  forms  of  poetry  that  are  not  epic  and 
dramatic.  We  ought,  however,  to  distinguish  the  form  called 
Elegiac^  a  term  commonly  associated  with  mourning  for  tlie  dead, 
but  really  embracing  a  much  wider  range.  Its  beautiful  antiphonal 
rhythm,  the  direct  offspring  (unless  it  be  rather  the  parent)  of  the 
Homeric   Hexameter,f  fitted  it  for  every  composition  requiring 

*  Keble :    Christian  Year.        •. 

f  The  Elegiac  couplet  is  in  fact  a  pair  of  Hexameters,  the  second  of  which  wants 
those  unaccented  syllables  which  give  the  common  verse  its  continuous  rhythm,  and  so 
becomes  fit  for  a  rest  or  termination.  This  is  both  described  and  illustrated  in  Schiller's 
couplet,  translated  by  Coleridge  : — 

In     the     Hexameter    rilses     the  I  fountain's   silvery   collumn, 
In  the  Pentameter  aye|  'falling  in  melody  back]. 

TOL.  I. — 24 


370  THE   HELLENIC   STATES  AND   COLONIES.     [Chap.  XIL 

sententious  brevity  or  effective  point ;  and  it  was  used,  in  a  vast 
variety  of  applications,  by  a  long  series  of  poets,  from  Callinus,  at 
the  beginning  of  the  Ttli  century  e.g.,  to  tlis  latest  epigrams  con- 
tained in  the  Greek  Anthology.  Lyric  poetry  is  essentially  the 
offfipring  of  music.  It  is  only  in  a  later  age,  when  reading  has 
gone  far  to  supersede  hearing,  that  music  is  employed  as  an  orna- 
ment superadded  to  poetry.  The  sweet  Thracian  singer,  Orpheus, 
was  the  mythical  father  both  of  music  and  of  poetry  ;  and  the  first 
historical  cultivators  of  music  were  the  teachers  of  the  first  lyric 
poets.  The  earliest  native  music  of  the  Greeks  was  traced  back 
by  tradition  to  that  Pieria  of  which  we  have  before  spoken,*  the 
home  of  Orpheus  and  the  Muses.  Its  character  was  probably 
preserved  in  the  stately  "  Dorian  mode ; "  and  its  original  instru- 
ment was  the  lyre  of  four  strings,  forming  a  tetrachord.  Terpander 
of  Lesbos,  the  real  father  of  Greek  music,f  invented  the  seven- 
stringed  lyre.  The  addition  of  the  eighth  string,  to  complete  the 
octave,  is  often  ascribed  to  Pythagoras.  The  Dorians  cultivated 
that  form  of  lyric  poetry,  in  which  hymns  were  sung  by  a  Chorus 
in  honour  of  the  gods  and  heroes  ;  and  hence  the  choral  odes  of  the 
Attic  tragedians  preserved  the  Doric  dialect.  But,  as  in  the  case 
of  epic  poetry,  the  first  great  development  of  the  art  came  from  the 
Ionian  colonies.  The  names  of  the  Phrygian  and  Lydian  modes, 
which  co-existed  from  time  immemorial  with  the  Dorian,  are  a 
suflicient  proof  of  Asiatic  influence.  From  the  same  quarter  the 
Greeks  borrowed  the  many-stringed  harp  and  the  more  impas- 
sioned music  of  the  flute.  These  innovations  were  not  unresisted ; 
and  the  well-known  tale  of  the  contest  between  Apollo  and  the 
Phrygian  flutist  Marsyas,  who  was  flayed  alive  as  the  penalty  of 
his  defeat,  seems  to  represent  the  conflict  between  the  Greek  and 
Asiatic  styles.  Asiatic  Greeks  were  among  the  chief  cultivators 
even  of  the  Dorian  choral  poetry;  nay,  the  earliest  distin- 
guished composer  in  this  kind,  the  Spartan  Alcman  (b.c.  670 — 
611),  is  said  to  have  been  originally  a  Lydian  slave.  Arion,  its 
improver,  who  has  been  already  mentioned,  was  a  native  of 
Methymna  in  Lesbos.  Stesichorus,  Avho  perfected  its  form,  was 
a  genuine  Dorian,  but  a  colonist  of  Ilimera  in  Sicily.:}:  Lasus, 
of  Hermione  in  Argolis,  who,  like  Arion,  was  a  great  improver 
of  the  form  of  choral   poetry  called   the   Dithyramb   (a   hymn 

*  See  p.  358. 

\  He  flourished  about  the  beginnhig  of  the  seventh  century. 

X  He   lived   about   b.c.    632 — 560,    and  invented  the    Strophe,  Antistrophe,    and 
Epode. 


B.C.  700—500.]  GREEK  LYRIC  POETRY.  371 

in  honour  of  Dionysus),  lived  under  the  patronage  of  Hippar- 
chus  at  Athens ;  where  also  Simonides  of  Ceos,  one  of  the  two 
great  masters  of  the  Epinicia,  or  Odes  in  praise  of  victors  in  the 
Grecian  games,  passed  the  greater  part  of  his  long  life(B.c.  556 — 
467).  Pindar,  his  great  rival,  whom  alone  of  all  these  poets  we 
have  the  means  of  appreciating  by  his  extant  works,  was  a  native 
of  Thebes,  was  trained  at  Athens  under  Lasus,  and,  like  Simo- 
nides, visited  the  courts  of  the  princes  whose  victories  he  celebrated, 
in  Macedonia,  Thessaly,  Sicily,  and  Cyrene,  Born  in  b.c.  522, 
he  had  just  began  his  career  at  the' epoch  of  the  Persian  Wars. 

That  other  form  of  lyric  poetry,  which  consists  in  odes  for  a 
single  performer,  generally  shorter  than  the  choral  pieces,  and 
divided  into  regular  stanzas,  was  chiefly  cultivated  by  the  ^olian 
and  Ionian  Greeks  of  Asia,  who  formed  two  separate  schools.  The 
style  of  their  poems  is  generally  known  best  through  the  exquisite 
imitations  of  Horace  and  Catullus ;  but  the  few  fragments  we 
possess  suffice  to  show  how  far  the  originals  surpass  the  copies. 
The  island  of  Lesbos  was  the  home  of  the  ^olian  school,  immor- 
talized by  the  "  manly  rage  "  of  Alcffius,^  and  the  passionate  strains 
of  the  "  dark-haired,  spotless,  sweet  smiling  Sappho."  The  term 
"  school "  may  be  applied  literally  to  these  poets,  for  in  Greece 
every  art  was  regularly  taught,  and  became  a  tradition  in  certain 
families,  and  we  know  that  Sappho  surrounded  herself  with  a  circle 
of  female  friends  and  pupils.  The  most  famous  poet  of  the  Ionian 
school  was  Anacreon  of  Teos,  in  whose  praise  of  love  of  wine  "  we 
see  the  luxury  of  the  Ionian  inflamed  by  the  fervour  of  the  poet." 
He  was  courted  both  by  Polycrates  and  Hipparchus.  The  story 
that  he  was  choked  by  a  grape-stone  seems  to  be  one  of  many  like 
inventions  in  which  the  scholars  of  antiqoity  indulged  their  fancy, 
to  make  the  deatlis  of  great  poets  worthy  of  their  lives.f 

Contemporaneously  with  the  earliest  lyric  poetry  there  sprung 
ap  the  form  of  composition  called  lamhic,'^  the  light  and  pointed 
measure  of  which  was  first  used  as  a  vehicle  of  fierce  satire  by 

*  The  phrase  is  Pope's',  who  doubtless  had  in  mind  the  "  Alcasi  minaces  CameniB  " 
of  Horace.  Much  of  the  poetry  of  Alcseus  referred  to  the  civil  contests  in  which  he 
bore  a  part  (see  p.  342),  but  much  of  it  was  of  another  character;  as,  for  instance,  the 
amatory  addresses  to  Sappho,  from  which  the  line  in  the  text  is  quoted.  Alcasus  and 
Sappho  both  flourished  about  B.C.  606 — 580. 

f  The  Greek  "  Anacreontics,"  known  by  naifie  to  English  readers  by  Moore's  imita- 
tions, are  the  productions  of  a  much  later  age.  We  possess  very  few  genuine  fragments 
of  Anacreon. 

\  Iambus,  from  a  verb  signifying  to  fling  or  pelt,  expresses  a  tonce  the  character  of 
the  metre  and  the  uses  to  which  it  was  applied. 


373  THE   HELLENIC   STATES  AND   COLONIES.     [Chap.  XH. 

Arcliiloclius  of  Paros  (about  b.c.  700),  and  in  a  gentler  spirit  of 
satire  and  moral  sentiment  by  his  contemporary,  Simonides  of 
Amorgos.  By  inverting  tlie  rliytlim  of  the  last  foot  of  the 
verse,  Ilipponax  of  Ephesus  (b.  c.  546—520)  produced  the  Choli- 
ambus  or  "  Lame  Iambic,"  the  grotesque  effect  of  which  gave 
point  alike  to  satire  and  to  fables  such  as  ^sop's.*  The  familiar 
rhythm  of  the  Iambic  verse  caused  it  to  be  adopted  for  the  con- 
versational parts  of  dramatic  poems.  The  highest  form  of  the  art 
had  already  begun  to  develop  itself  at  Athens  in  the  hands  of 
Thespis,  Choerilus,  and  Plirynichus  (b.c.  535  and  onwards),  but 
its  perfection  was  reserved  for  that  great  intellectual  movement 
which  followed  the  Persian  Wars.f 

N'or  was  this  exuberant  growth  of  the  imagination  inconsistent 
with  the  culture  of  the  understanding.  The  same  age  that  bore  these 
rich  fruits  of  poesy  laid  the  solid  foundations  of  Greek  Philosophy. 
This  word  now  appears  in  our  story  almost  for  the  first  time. 
The  wisdom  of  the  earliest  ages  expresses  itself  for  the  most  part 
in  the  form  of  practical  precepts,  bearing  on  the  duties  and  affaii*8 
of  common  life.  It  was  by  throwing  such  precepts  into  a  terse 
proverbial  form,  rather  than  by  speculating  on  the  sources  of 
knowledge  and  the  reason  of  things,  that  men  acquired  the 
reputation  of  being  wiser  than  their  fellows.  Such  are  the  sayings 
that  have  been  current  in  the  East  in  the  earliest  times,  and  of 
which  we  have  the  great  example  in  the  Proverbs  of  Solomon. 
Such  were  the  maxims  that  were  repeated  throughout  Greece  as 
the  utterance  of  certain  distinguished  men  who  obtained  the  title  of 
the  Seven  Sages,  about  the  epoch  of  b.c.  600.  Among  these  were 
Solon,  Thales,  Bias,  Pittacus,  and  Periander,  whose  names  have 
already  occurred  in  our  work  ;  the  list  was  filled  up  variously  ;  but 
the  two  generally  included  in  it  were  Cleobulus,  the  tyrant  of 
Lindus  in  Khodes,  and  Chilo,  an  Ephor  of  Sparta.  Many  maxims, 
which  passed  current  throughout  Greece  as  their  sayings,  have 
been  handed  down  to  us  ;  and  the  joint  product  of  their  wisdom 
is  said  to  have  been  embodied  in  the  mottoes  inscribed  on  the 
temple  at  Delphi : — "  Examine  thyself; "  "  K'othing  in  excess ;  " 
"  Know  thy  opportunity." 

But  there  w^ere  some  who,  besides  cultivating  this  practical 
wisdom,  had  begun   to  investigate  those   questions  of  physical 

*  In  the  latter  application  it  was  used  by  Babrius,  a  Greek  poet  of  the  Augustan 
age,  whose  recently  discovered  version  of  ^Esop's  Fables  was  edited  by  Sir  George 
Cornewall  Lewis. 

f  We  possess  several  fragments  of  Iambic  poetry  by  Solon. 


B.C.  600.]  GREEK  PHILOSOPHY.  373 

and  abstract  science,  whicli  always  formed  a  favourite  part  of 
Greek  philosophy.  Thales  of  Miletus  is  said  to  have  predicted 
the  solar  eclipse  which  broke  off  the  great  battle  between  Alyattes 
and  Cyaxares,*  and  electricians  claim  him  as  the  father  of  their 
science,  because  he  is  said  to  have  observed  the  attraction  of  light 
bodies  by  amber  f  when  it  is  rubbed.  He  was  one  of  the  earliest 
cultivators  of  geometry.  A  discrepancy  has  been  often  noticed 
between  the  very  elementary  character  of  the  propositions  he  is 
said  to  have  demonstrated  and  the  knowledge  needed  for  calcu- 
lating an  eclipse.  But  Greek  science  in  this  age  does  not  profess 
originality.  Like  Solon,  Thales  visited  Egypt,  and  may  have 
there  learnt,  with  the  elements  of  geometry,  enough  of  the  results 
of  Egyptian  astronomy  to  enable  him  to  predict  the  eclipse, 
though  he  had  not  calculated  it  himself.  Thales  is  said  moreover 
to  have  ventured  on  the  vast  field  of  speculative  science,  propound- 
ing the  doctrine  that  water,  or  matter  in  a  liquid  state,  is  the 
element  from  which  all  things  are  generated,  and  into  which  all 
thino;s  will  be  resolved.  How  far  Thales  acted  as  a  teacher  we  do 
not  know  ;  but  at  all  events  his  doctrines  found  disciples,  and  so 
he  ranked  as  the  founder  of  the  first  school  or  sect  of  Greek  philo- 
sophy, the  Ionic.  He  lived  from  b.c.  640  to  b.c.  550.  Tlie  Ionic 
school  rapidly  attained  high  distinction  under  Anaximander, 
Anaximenes,  and  Anaxagoras.  The  first  (b.c.  610 — 547)  devoted 
himself  to  science.  He  is  said  to  have  introduced  into  Greece  the 
sun-dial,  an  instrument  long  known  to  the  Babylonians  and 
Egyptians,  ^  As  the  author  of  a  geographicaFdescription  of  the 
earth,  he  is  one  of  the  earliest  Greek  prose  writers  ;  and  the  work 
was  illustrated  by  the  first  map  which  is  known  to  have  been 
constructed.  This  was  probably  the  map,  engraved  on  a  tablet 
of  bronze,  which  Aristagoras,  the  tyrant  of  Miletus,  exhibited  at 
Sparta  at  the  time  of  the  Ionic  revolt.  §  Anaximenes,  on  the 
other  hand,  pursued  his  master's  speculations  upon  the  origin  of 

*  See  chap,  x.,  p.  256.  \  In  Greek  electron- 

ic. It  is  impossible  for  us  to  do  more  than  glance,  from  time  to  time,  at  the  very  in- 
teresting subject  of  the  History  of  Inventions.  The  work  of  Beckmann,  with  that  title, 
contains  a  vast  mass  of  information,  and  the  reader  may  also  consult  the  articles  in 
Smith's  Dictionary  of  Antiquities,  under  the  guidance  of  the  Index. 

§  The  map  of  Anaximander,  as  corrected  by  the  logographer  Hecatfeus  is  ridiculed 
by  Herodotus,  for  affecting  to  show  the  form  of  distant  regions,  of  which  the  map-maker 
could  know  nothing.  The  modern  writers,  who  retort  upon  Herodotus  the  charge  of 
ridiculing  the  true  doctrine  of  the  earth's  globular  figure,  have  not  perceived  that  he  is 
speaking  of  nothing  of  the  sort,  but  of  the  exhibition  of  the  earth  as  a  plane  circle, 
with  the  river  Oceanus  flowing  all  around  it,  a  view  which  he  justly  refers  to  the  ima- 
gination of  the  poets. 


374  THE   HELLENIC   STATES  AND   COLONIES.     [Chap.  Xn< 

the  universe,  which,  however,  he  referred  not  to  water  but  to  air, 
while  his  contemporary,  Heraclitus  of  Ephesus,  made  fire  the 
all-producing  element.  His  successor,  Anaxagoras  of  Clazomenae, 
who  raised  the  Ionian  school  to  its  highest  pitch  of  fame,  and 
whose  teaching  influenced  some  of  the  greatest  minds  of  Athens, — 
Pericles,  Socrates,  and  Euripides, — was  not  bora  till  b.c.  499.  He 
belongs  to  that  second  stage  of  philosophy,*  in  which  the  enquirer 
looks  beyond  the  material  world  in  search  of  some  incorporeal 
principle  of  power,  to  the  action  of  which  all  things  owe  their  being. 
This,  Anaxagoras  found  in  the  Kous,  that  is,  Mind  or  Intellect, 
which  he  conceived  of  as  independent  of  matter,  but  also  as  imper- 
sonal. The  Nous  was  not  the  creator,  but  a  force  which  acted 
upon  self-existent  matter,  reducing  it  from  chaos  into  order,  and 
uniting  with  it  to  form  intelligent  beings,  in  whom  the  Nous 
alone  perceives  reality  and  truth,  the  senses  being  always  decep- 
tive. This  view  was  understood  to  imply  disbelief,  not  only  in  the 
received  Greek  Pantheon,  but  in  any  personal  god,  and  Anax- 
agoras was  accused  of  atheism.  We  shall  see  hereafter  how  this 
charge  was  used  against  Pericles.  A  different  mode  of  solving  the 
problem  of  the  universe,  was  suggestedbyXenophanes  of  Colophon, 
who  taught  the  doctrine  wliicli  has  since  received  the  name  of  Pan- 
theism, that  all  nature  collectively  is  God.  From  his  residence  at 
Elea  in  Italy,  after  the  Persian  conquest  of  Ionia,  his  school  was 
called  the  Eleatic.  It  became  especially  famous  for  its  subtile 
dialectics. 

The  greatest  name  in  early  Greek  philosophy  is  Pythagoras, 
but  much  of  the  doctrine  called  Pythagorean  is  to  be  ascribed  to 
later  followers  of  the  school.  Pythagoras  was  bom  at  Samos 
about  B.C.  580,  and  travelled  to  Egypt  and  other  countries  of  the 
East,  probably  as  far  as  Babylon.  The  result  is  seen  in  three 
elements  which  entered  into  his  philosophy,  the  physical,  the 
psychological,  and  the  religious,  as  well  as  in  the  mysticism  afiected 
by  his  followers ;  but,  as  no  genuine  writings  of  his  have  been 
handed  down  to  us,  we  can  only  form  a  very  general  notion  of  his 
doctrines.  He  advanced  the  sciences  of  mathematics  and  astro- 
nomy considerably  beyond  their  former  limits.  In  geometry  he  is 
said  to  have  solved  the  celebrated  proposition,  which  lays  the  basis 
for  the  application  of  number  to  magnitudes  of  space.f  In  arithmetic 


*  Perhaps  more  properly  called  the  third,  the  first  being  that  of  practical  ethics, 
f  Euclid  I.  47.     The  square  on  the  hypotenuse  of  a  right-angled  triangle  is  equai 
to  the  sura  of  the  squares  on  the  other  sides. 


B.C.  540— 510.]      PYTHAGORAS  AND   HIS   SCHOOL.  «75 

he  framed  certain  theories  respecting  the  connection  of  harmony 
with  proportion,  which  entered  more  or  less  into  his  philosophical 
doctrines.  ISTot  only  musical  intervals,  not  only  the  distances  of 
the  planets,  but  the  whole  constitution  of  the  universe  was  con- 
ceived by  Pythagoras  to  be  based  upon  the  arithmetical  lav/s  of 
harmony.  In  astronomy  there  seems  good  reason  to  believe  that 
he  or  his  disciples  held,  in  part  at  least,  the  true  theory  of  the 
solar  system,  which  was  revived  two  thousand  years  later  by 
Copernicus.  But  the  chief  distinctive  doctrine  of  Pythagoras  was 
that  of  the  transmigration  of  souls  from  body  to  body  both  of  men 
and  animals,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  was  held  by  the  Egyptians 
from  a  remote  period.  This  doctrine  was  used  to  account  for  those 
strange  phenomena  of  consciousness  which  Plato  represents  Socra- 
tes also  as  referring  to  knowledge  acquired  in  a  former  state  of  exist- 
ence. Pythagoras  found  it  useful  too  for  acquiring  religious 
ascendancy  over  his  disciples.  He  did  not  disdain  the  arts  by 
which  intellectual  reformers  have  often  appealed  to  the  imagina- 
tions of  common  men.  He  declared  that  he  himself  had  lived  on 
earth  in  the  person  of  the  Trojan  hero  Euphorbus,  whom  Menelaus 
had  slain  and  dedicated  his  shield  in  the  Temple  of  Hera  near 
Mycenae  ;  and,  in  proof  of  the  assertion,  Pythagoras  took  down  the 
shield  from  the  midst  of  all  the  other  votive  offerings.  The  man  who 
can  make  good  such  a  claim  might  well  be  supposed  a  favourite  of 
the  gods,  endowed  with  the  gifts  of  prophecy  and  divination.  He 
was  reverenced  by  his  disciples  as  a  superior  being.  Their  unques- 
tioning faith  in  his  teaching  has  passed  into  the  proverb.  Ipse  dixit 
— "  He  has  said  it."  It  was  at  Croton  in  Italy, — whither  he  pro- 
bably retired  because  Samos,  under  the  despotism  of  Polycrates, 
allowed  his  system  no  free  scope, — that  his  most  attached  disciples 
were  formed  into  a  secret  society,  and  initiated  in  peculiar  religious 
mysteries.  This  Pythagorean  brotherhood  numbered  300  members 
of  the  chief  families  of  Croton  ;  and  there  were  similar  societies  in 
other  cities  of  southern  Italy.  They  passed  through  a  probationar}' 
discipline,  in  which  the  power  of  keeping  silence  formed  the  great 
test  of  that  serene  self-control  which  was  the  great  object  of  the 
whole  discipline.  They  practised  an  ascetic  purity  of  life ;  but  it 
is  doubtful  whether  Pythagoras  enjoined  abstinence  from  animal 
food.f  They  were  bound  to  keep  secret  all  that  passed  within 
their  pale  ;  and  the  Pythagorean  maxim,  that  everything  was  not 


*  It  has  been  observed  that  such   a  restriction  was   impossible   for   the   athlete 
Milo. 


378  THE   HELLENIC   STATES  AND   COLONDES.     [Chap.  XH. 

to  be  told  to  everybody,  gave  rise  to  the  celebrated  and  often 
abused  distinction  between  esoteric  and  exoteric — inner  and  outei 
— teaching.  But  in  what  the  esoteric  doctrine  of  Pythagoras  con- 
sisted, we  have  no  certain  information  :  it  was  probably  a  system 
of  religious  doctrine  developed  from  a  mystical  exposition  of  cer- 
tain parts  of  the  old  Mythology,  perhaps  with  additions  imported 
from  the  East.  Little  information  can  be  gained  on  these  matters 
from  the  later  Pythagoreans,  who  were  inclined  to  trace  back  to 
their  founder  some  part  of  all  the  truth  and  wisdom  they  found 
throughout  the  world. 

The  Pythagorean  brotherhood,  consisting  almost  entirely  of 
the  richer  class  of  citizens,  and  looking  with  scorn  upon  those 
beyond  its  pale,  became  an  object  of  jealousy  to  the  democratic 
party,  whose  views  were  certainly  not  favoured  by  the  teaching  of 
Pythagoras  himself.  It  is  not  improbable  that  they  incurred  great 
odium  from  the  destruction  of  Sybaris,  the  war  having  been  advised 
by  Pythagoras,  and  conducted  by  his  disciple  Milo.  The  athlete's 
house  was  assaulted  and  burnt  in  a  popular  tumult ;  many  of  the 
members  who  met  there  perished ;  and  the  brotherhoods  were 
suppressed  throughout  Magna  Grsecia.  Pythagoras  himself  is  said 
to  have  fled  for  his  life  to  Tarentam,  and  thence  to  Metapontum, 
where  his  tomb  was  visited  by  Cicero.  According  to  one  account,  he 
starved  himself  to  death.  His  school  survived  the  suppression  of  the 
secret  societies ;  and  its  influence  may  be  especially  traced  in  the 
philosophy  of  Plato.  Among  its  most  celebrated  members  were 
the  mathematician  and  mechanician  Archytas,  and  Damon  and 
Phinthias  (not  Pythias),  who  have  furnished  one  of  the  proverbial 
examples  of  devoted  friendship.  All  three  lived  under  Dionysius  I., 
tyrant  of  Syracuse,  about  e.g.  400. 

Among  the  products  of  Hellenic  genius,  none  are  more  won- 
derful than  tlieir  perfect  works  of  art.  Though  the  paintings  of  the 
Greek  masters  have  perished,  the  descriptions  which  are  preserved 
leave  no  doubt  of  tlieir  surpassing  excellence.  In  sculpture,  not 
to  speak  of  other  examples,  it  is  the  glory  of  our  country  to  possess, 
in  the  Elgin  marbles,  the  unapproachable  standard  of  perfect 
beauty.  If  in  architecture,  as  in  poetry,  the  majestic  harmony  of 
the  classic  school  has  been  rivalled  by  the  bold  variety  of  the 
romantic,  it  is  none  the  less  true  that  the  former  is  perfect  of  its 
kind ;  and  sober  criticism  shrinks  from  awarding  the  palm  between 
the  Parthenon  and  Westminster  Abbey,  any  more  than  between 
Sophocles  and  Shakspere.  Both  styles  possess  the  merit  of  per- 
fect adaptation  to  the  climate,  the  spirit,  and  the  uses,  for  which 


B.C.  700—500.]  ORIGIN  OF   GRECIAN  ART.  377 

each  was  first  designed ;  and  both  must  be  judged  by  this  standard 
of  fitness. 

What  was  the  source  of  imitative  art  among  the  Greeks,  and 
^ow  far  their  first  efforts  may  have  been  influenced  by  Egyptian 
or  other  models,  is  too  wide  and  difiicult  a  question  to  be  discussed 
in  the  present  work  ;  nor  shall  we  attempt  to  trace  those  steps  of 
progress,  which  belong  to  the  special  history  of  art.*  We  can  only 
glance  at  the  state  of  art  at  this  epoch,  as  an  evidence  of  the 
intellectual  state  of  Hellas,  and  an  essential  element  of  Hellenic 
life  and  strength.  In  Greece,  as  in  every  other  nation,  the  fine 
arts  had  their  origin  in  religion.  Their  first  productions  were  the 
temples  and  statues  of  the  gods  ;  their  next,  the  tombs  and  monu- 
ments of  great  men  and  memorable  events.  These  became  works 
of  architecture  and  sculpture,  while  cities  and  houses  were  still 
only  buildings,  in  the  lower  sense  of  mere  utility.  Colour  was 
used  to  enrich  form  before  painting  arose  as  an  imitative  art. 

Thus  architecture  preceded  sculpture,  and  sculpture  painting ; 
and  the  two  latter  arts  were  but  the  handmaids  of  the  former. 
At  the  epoch  of  the  Persian  Wars,  sculpture  and  painting  were 
both  in  a  state  of  transition  from  the  archaic  stifiness  which 
marks,  not  only  the  imperfect  skill  of  the  earlier  artists,  but  the 
fetters  imposed  on  them  by  tradition.  But  the  rapid  development 
of  both  arts  before  the  middle  of  the  next  century  proves  how 
much  had  been  done  to  prepare  the  way  for  Phidias  and  Poly- 
gnotus.  From  the  beginning  of  the  sixth  century,  schools  of 
statuary  flourished  in  several  Grecian  cities  ;  usually  in  families, 
which  had  handed  down  the  traditions  of  the  art  from  the  old 
carvers  of  wooden  statues  of  the  gods,  who  are  represented  by  the 
mythic  names  of  Daedalus  in  Attica  and  Smilis  in  ^gina.  About 
the  same  time  artists  among  the  Asiatic  Greeks,  especially  in  Chios 
and  Samos,  began  to  employ  the  mechanical  processes  of  metal 
working,  such  as  casting,  soldering  or  welding,  chasing  and  em- 
bossing. Of  the  progress  made  in  the  last-named  art  the  great 
bowl  dedicated  by  Croesus  is  an  example  ;  while  the  ring  of  Poly- 
crates  proves  the  skill  attained  in  gem- engraving.  It  would  be 
absurd  to  doubt  that  these  artists  had  learnt  much  from  that 
earher  Asiatic  art,  the  fruits  of  which  we  have  seen  in  the  sculp- 
tures and  engraved  seal-rings  of  the  Babylonian  and  Assyrian 
kings.     An  impulse  was  given  to  the  art  about  the  middle  of  the 


*  The  writer  may  be  permitted  to  refer  to  the  articles  on  art  and  artists  in  Dr. 
Smith's  Dictionaries,  as  furnishing  a  general  guide  to  the  subject. 


378  THE   HELLENIC   STATES  AND  COLONIES.     [Chap.  XIL 

sixth  century  b.c.  by  the  erection  of  the  statues  of  ■\-ictors  in  the 
games.  The  ancient  Greek  works  in  metal  have  perished,  with 
comparatively  few  exceptions,  but  of  their  sculpture  we  have 
remains  dating  from  the  mythical  age,  to  which  belong  the  rude 
but  bold  lions  rampant  carved  over  the  gates  of  Mycense.  The 
archaic  sculptures  of  the  temple  at  Selinus,  in  Sicily,  belong  to 
the  beginning  of  the  sixth  century.  A  most  decided  advance  in 
the  imitation  of  natural  forms  is  shown  in  the  figures  in  the  pedi- 
ment of  the  temple  of  .J^gina,  casts  of  which  may  be  seen  in  the 
British  Museum.  The  ^ginetan  school  of  sculpture  was  at  its 
acme  during  the  last  half  of  the  sixth  century. 

Greek  architecture  may  be  said  to  have  attained  its  perfection, 
in  all  the  essentials  of  form,  at  the  epoch  of  the  Persian  Wars. 
The  prevailing  order  was  the  majestic  Doric,  splendid  specimens 
of  which  are  seen  in  the  two  magnificent  temples  at  Paestum  and 
in  the  less  perfect  temple  of  Jove  Panhellenius,  in  the  island  of 
-^gina.  The  comparison  of  the  larger  and  older  temple  of  Paes- 
tum with  the  Parthenon  at  Athens  is  the  most  instructive  com- 
mentary on  the  progress  made  between  the  middle  of  the  sixth 
and  of  the  fifth  centuries.  The  great  Doric  temples  of  Hera,  at 
Samos,  built  about  b.c.  600,  and  of  Apollo  at  Delplii,  rebuilt 
after  the  fire  of  b.c.  548,  have  entirely  perished.  The  Doric  seems 
to  have  been  the  true  native  Hellenic  order.  The  graceful  Ionic 
had  its  origin  in  Asia ;  and  it  is  most  interesting  to  find  its 
characteristic  ornament,  the  capital  with  its  double  volute,  several 
times  repeated  among  the  Assyrian  monuments.*  Like  the  Doric, 
it  was  perfected  at  Athens  in  the  time  of  Pericles.  The  chief 
early  example  of  the  style  in  Ionia  itself  was  the  immense  temple 
of  Artemis  at  Ephesus,  begun  about  b.c.  600,  and  reckoned  one 
of  the  wonders  of  the  world.  The  temple  standing  at  Ephesus 
in  the  Koman  age  was  a  still  more  splendid  edifice,  erected  by 
contributions  from  all  the  states  of  Asia  Minor,  after  the  former 
temple  had  been  burnt  by  the  maniac  Herostratus  on  the  birth- 
night  of  Alexander  the  Great  (b.c.  356).  The  third  order  of 
Greek  architecture,  the  beautiful  Corinthian,  dates  from  the  latter 
part  of  the  fifth  century  b.c.  ;  but  the  earliest  known  example, 
the  choragic  monument  of  Lysicrates,  is  still  a  century  later  (b.c 
336).  This  order  is  often  regarded  as  only  a  modification  of  the 
Ionic. 

]^o  new  order  of  classic  architecture  has  since  been  invented ; 
nor  have  these  ever  been  modified  without  injury,  as  in  the  Roman 

*  Layard  :  Nineveh  and  Babylon^  pp.  119,  444,  648. 


B.C.  600—500.]  GREEK  PAINTING.  37i} 

Doric,  and  its  variety  the  Tuscan,  and  in  the  Composite,  which  is 
a  hybrid  between  the  Ionic  and  Corinthian.  It  needed  those 
other  original  elements,  wliich  were  supplied  by  the  Arabian  and 
Gothic  races,  to  form  new  styles  at  all  worthy  to  be  placed  in 
competition  with  the  Greek. 

Of  Greek  painting  the  earliest  remains  are  the  vases  of  Corinth, 
the  city  which  shares  with  Sicyon  the  fame  of  being  the  earliest 
seat  of  the  art  (about  e.g.  600).  They  are  in  the  stiff  archaic  style, 
and  the  figures  are  mere  outlines  in  profile  or  silhouettes.  The 
earliest  painter  of  eminence  was  Cimon,  of  Cleonse  in  Argolis, 
who  was  contemporary  with  Pisistratus.  He  is  said  to  have 
invented  the  art  of  foreshortening  the  fignre,  and  to  have  been  the 
first  who  indicated  the  muscles  and  veins,  and  gave  drapery  its 
natural  folds.  About  the  same  time  the  art  must  have  made  con- 
siderable progress  in  Ionia  ;  for  there  were  paintings  among  the 
goods  which  the  Phocseans  carried  with  them  when  they  left  their 
city  (b.c.  544).  Near  the  close  of  the  same  century  we  hear  of  a 
picture  representing  the  passage  of  the  Hellespont  by  Darius. 
Tliis  work  was  preserved  in  the  Herseum  at  Samos,  the  chief 
seat  of  the  art  after  the  Persian  conquest  of  Ionia. 

The  moral  efifects  of  all  these  great  political  and  intellectual 
movements,  especially  upon  the  Athenians,  are  summed  up  in  the 
words  of  Herodotus  : — "  Liberty  and  Equality  of  civic  rights  are 
brave  spirit-stirring  things  ;  and  they  who,  while  under  the  yoke 
of  a  despot,  had  been  no  better  men  of  war  than  any  of  their  neigh- 
bours, as  soon  as  they  were  free,  became  the  foremost  men  of  all ; 
for  each  felt  that,  in  fighting  for  a  free  commonwealth,  he  fought 
for  himself,  and,  whatever  he  took  in  hand,  he  was  zealous  to  do 
the  work  thoroughly."  * 

*  Herodotus  V.  8*7,  as  quoted  by  Sir  E.  S.  Creasy  {Fifteen  Decisive  Battles,  p.  30), 
who  compares  the  sentiment  with  the  beautiful  lines  in  Barbour's  Bruce : — 
"  Ah,  Fredome  is  a  noble  thing  : 
Fredorae  makes  man  to  haiff  lyking. 
Fredome  all  solace  to  men  gives, 
He  lives  at  ease,  that  freely  lives." 

See  also  the  admirable  conclusion  of  the  31st  Chapter  of  Mr.  Grote's  History  of 
Greece, 


880  THE  PERSIAN  WARS. 


CHAPTEK  XIII. 


THE   PERSIAN  WARS,  FROM    THE  IONIAN  REVOLT  TO  THE 
BATTLES   OF  THE    EURYMEDON.     B.C.   500—466. 


"  Age  shakes  Athena's  tower,  but  spares  gray  Marathon. 
***** 

Preserves  alike  its  bounds  and  boundless  fame, 
The  battle-field,  where  Persia's  victim  horde 
First  bow'd  beneath  the  brunt  of  Hellas'  sword. 
As  on  the  morn,  to  distant  glory  dear, 
When  Marathon'  became  a  magic  word  ; 
Which  utter'd,  to  the  hearer's  eye  appear 
The  camp,  the  host,  the  fight,  the  conqueror's  career, 

"  The  flying  Mede,  his  shaftless  broken  bow ; 
The  fiery  Greek,  his  red  pursuing  spear; 
Mountains  above.  Earth's,  Ocean  s  plain  below ; 
Death  in  the  front.  Destruction  Ln  the  rear!" — Btrox. 


CAUSES  OF  THE  IONIAN  REVOLT — MILTIADES  AND  HISTI^US — AFFAIR  OF  NAXOS — REVOLT  OF  ARIS- 
TAGORAS — AID  SOUGHT  FROM  SPARTA  AND  ATHENS — SAUDIS  BURNT  BY  THE  lONIANS  AND 
ATHENIANS — DEFEAT   OF   THE   lONIANS   AND    CAPTURE  OF  MILETUS — HIPPIAS  AT  THE  PERSIAN 

COURT — FAILURE   OF   THE   EXPEDITION    UNDER   MARDONIUS — HIS   CONQUEST  OF  MACEDONIA 

PREPARATIONS  OF  DARIUS — ATHENS  AND  SPARTA  ALONE  REFUSE  EARTH  AND  WATER — EX- 
PEDITION UNDER  DATIS  AND  ARTAPHERNES— CONQUEST  OF  THE  ISLANDS — PREPARATIONS  AT 
ATHENS— BATTLE  OF  MARATHON — FATE  OF  MILTIADES— THE  ^GINETAN  WAR — FOUNDATIOX 
OF  THE  MARITIME  POWER  OF  ATHENST — HEMISTOCLES  AND  ARISTIDES — XERXES  PREPARES  A 
THIRD  INVASION — PROGRESS  OF  THE  EXPEDITION — THERMOPYL^ — LEONIDAS  AND  THE  THREE 
HUNDRED  SPARTANS — EVENTS  PRECEDING  THE  BATTLE  OF  SALAMIS — DEFEAT  OP  THE  PERSIAN 
FLEET — RETREAT  OP  XERXES — BATTLE  OF  HIMERA  IN  SICILY  ON  THE  SAME  DAY — MARDONIUS 
IN  BCEOTIA — BATTLES  OP  PLAT^A  AND  MYCALE — AFFAIRS  OF  THEBES — LIBERATION  OP 
THE  ISLANDS,  THRACE,  AND  MACEDONIA — THE  WAR  TRANSFERRED  TO  ASIA— CAPTURE  OF 
SESTOS— THE  LEADERSHIP  TRANSFERRED  FROM  SPARTA  TO  ATHENS — TREASON  AND  DEATH  OP 
PAUSANIAS— OSTRACISM  OF  THEMISTOCLES — CIMON  AND  PERICLES — CAMPAIGNS  OF  CIMON  ON 
THE  ASIATIC  COAST — DOUBLE  VICTORY  OF  THE  EURYMEDON — UNSUCCESSFUL  CAMPAIGN  OF 
THE  ATHENIANS  IN  EGYPT. 

When  Darius  the  son  of  Hystaspes  invaded  the  land  of  the 
Scythians,  under  the  pretext  of  punishing  their  inroad  upon 
"Western  Asia,  the  tyrants  of  the  chief  cities  of  the  Hellespont 
and  Ionia  followed  in  his  train.  As  their  power  was  maintained 
by  his  support,  he  reposed  in  them  the  greatest  confidence.  On 
plunging  into  the  wilds  of  Scythia,  he  entrusted  to  their  charge 
the  bridge  of  boats  by  which  he  had  crossed  the  Danube.  If  he 
did  not  return  within  sixty  days,  they  might  conclude  that  the 
expedition  had  perished,  and  consult  their  own  safety.  The  sixty 
days  had  expired,  when  a  body  of  Scythians  brought  the  news  tliat 
Darius  was  in  full  retreat.     They  urged  the  Greeks  to  break  the 


B.C.  503.]  CAUSES   OF   THE   IONIAN  REVOLT.  381 

bridge,  and  so  to  ensure  the  destruction  of  the  Persian  army 
and  the  recovery  of  their  own  freedom.  Among  the  Grecian  chief- 
tains was  Miltiades,  the  tyrant  of  the  Chersonese.  He  belonged 
to  a  noble  family  at  Athens,  and  was  the  second  owTier  of  his 
deathless  name.  The  first  Miltiades,  the  son  of  Cypselus,  had 
been  induced  by  an  oracle,  and  by  the  desire  to  escape  from  the 
tyranny  of  Pisistratus,  to  lead  a  colony  to  the  Thracian  Cherso- 
nese.* He  established  his  authority  over  the  whole  peninsula, 
and  built  a  wall  across  its  narrow  isthmus.  Himself  childless, 
he  had  a  half  brother,  Cimon,  whose  two  sons  were  Stesagoras 
and  Miltiades.  Stesagoras  succeeded  his  uncle,  but  on  his  death 
the  tyranny  was  in  danger  of  overthrow.  The  young  Miltiades  was 
sent  from  Athens  by  Pisistratus  to  secure  the  inheritance.  By  a 
stratagem  he  seized  and  imprisoned  the  popular  leaders,  raised  a 
force  of  mercenaries,  and  gained  the  friendship  of  the  neighboring 
Thracians  by  marrying  the  daughter  of  their  king  Olorus.  Such 
was  the  early  career  of  the  man  w^ho  inflicted  the  first  decisive 
defeat  on  the  power  of  Persia.  He  held  his  power  in  the  Cherso- 
nese without  that  support  from  Darius  by  which  the  Ionian  tyrants 
were  upheld,  and  he  had  nothing  to  lose  by  the  course  his  patriot- 
ism dictated.  His  proposal  to  break  the  bridge  was  approved  by  the 
other  despots,  till  Histieeus,  the  tyrant  of  Miletus,  reminded  them 
that  such  a  blow  to  the  Persian  power  woidd  recoil  upon  them- 
selves. To  get  rid  of  the  Scythians,  and  perhaps  to  keep  the  final 
decision  in  their  own  hands,  the  wily  lonians  adopted  the  course 
of  severing  the  fm-ther  end  of  the  bridge.  It  was  night  when  the 
Persian  army  reached  the  river,  and  found  no  traces  of  the  boats. 
Thereupon  Darius  ordered  a  loud-voiced  Egyptian  to  stand  upon 
the  bank  and  call  Histiseus,  the  Milesian,  who  at  the  first  sum- 
mons brought  forward  the  fleet  to  restore  the  bridge.  By  this 
means  Histiseus  obtained  all  tlie  credit  of  saving  Darius  and  his 
army.  We  have  seen  how  he  was  rewarded,  and  how  he  again 
lost  the  royal  favor,  f 

Darius  returned  to  Susa,  leaving  the  western  provinces  in  i>ro- 
found  peace  under  the  government  of  his  brother  Artaphernes. 
A  trifling  incident  lighted  the  flame  of  rebellion.  One  of  those 
political  conflicts,  which  we  have  seen  occurring  throughout 
Greece,  broke  out  in  ISTaxos,  an  island  of  the  Cyclades  (b.c.  502). 

*  The  district  so  often  mentioned  in  Greek  history  by  this  name  is  the  long  and  narrow 
peninsula  which  forms  the  north  side  of  the  Hellespont  (Dardanelles).  "  Chersonesus" 
Qieans  an  island  attached  to  the  mainland. 

f  Chap.  X.,  p.  293. 


383  THE  PERSIAN  WARS.  [Chap.  XIH. 

The  exiles  of  the  oligarchical  jjartj  applied  for  aid  to  Aristagoras, 
the  tyrant  of  Miletus,  who  persuaded  Artaphernes  to  send  an 
expedition  against  Naxos.  The  Persian  commander,  incensed  by 
the  interference  of  Aristagoras  on  a  point  of  discipline,  warned 
the  j^axians,  and  so  caused  the  failure  of  the  expedition  and 
ruined  the  credit  of  Aristagoras,  who  saw  no  course  open  to  him 
but  revolt.  Meanwhile,  his  father-in-law,  Histia^us,  was  plotting 
to  revenge  himself  for  his  detention  at  Susa.  He  shaved  the 
head  of  a  trusty  slave,  and  having  branded  on  the  scalp  a  message 
calling  on  Aristagoras  to  revolt,  kept  him  till  the  hair  grew  again, 
and  then  sent  him  to  Miletus.  With  the  consent  of  the  Milesian 
citizens,  Aristagoras  seized  the  tyrants  who  were  on  board  of  the 
fleet  that  had  returned  from  Naxos  ;  he  laid  down  his  own  power  ; 
popular  governments  were  proclaimed  in  all  the  cities  and  islands  ; 
and  Ionia  revolted  from  Darius  (b.c.  501). 

Aristagoras  went  to  Sparta,  carrying  with  him  the  bronze  map 
of  which  we  have  already  spoken,*  and  tried  to  tempt  the  king, 
Cleomenes,  by  displaying  the  greatness  of  the  Persian  empire  ; 
but  his  admission  that  Susa  was  three  months'  journey  from  the 
sea  ruined  his  cause.  He  had  better  success  at  Athens  ;  for  the 
Athenians  knew  that  Artaphernes  had  been  made  their  enemy 
by  Hippias.  They  voted  twenty  ships  in  aid  of  the  lonians,  and 
the  squadron  was  increased  by  five  ships  of  the  Eretrians.  Having 
united  with  the  Ionian  fleet,  they  disembarked  at  Ephesus, 
marched  up  the  country,  and  surprised  Sardis,  which  was  acci- 
dentally burnt  during  the  pillage.  Their  forces  were  utterly  inade- 
quate to  hold  the  city ;  and  their  return  was  not  effected  without 
a  severe  defeat  by  the  pursuing  army  The  Athenians  re-embarked 
and  sailed  home,  while  the  lonians  dispersed  to  their  cities  to 
make  those  preparations  which  should  have  preceded  the  attack. 
Their  powerful  fleet  gained  for  them  the  adhesion  of  the  Ilelles- 
pontine  cities  as  far  as  Byzantiu.m,  of  Caria,  Caunus,  and  Cyprus  ; 
but  this  island  was  recovered  by  the  Persians  within  a  year.  The 
lonians  protracted  the  insurrection  for  six  years.  Their  cause  was 
early  abandoned  by  Aristagoras,  who  fled  to  the  coast  of  Thrace 
and  there  perished.  IlistiaMis,  who  had  lulled  the  suspicions  of 
Darius  by  promising  him  not  only  vengeance  on  the  rebels,  but  the 
conquest  of  Sardinia,  returned  to  Ionia  only  to  be  repulsed  from 
Miletus  and  to  have  his  treachery  detected  at  Sardis.  After  some 
further  adventures,  he  perished  by  crucifixion.  The  fate  of  the  re- 
volt turned  at  last  on  the  siege  of  Miletus.     The  city  was  protected 

*  Chap,  xii.,  p.  373. 


B.C.  492.]  EXPEDITION  OF  MARDONIUS.  383 

by  the  Ionian  fleet,  for  wliicli  the  Phoenician  navy  of  Artaphernes 
was  no  match.  But  there  was  fatal  disunion  and  want  of  discipline 
on  board,  and  the  defection  of  the  Samians  gave  the  Persians  an 
easy  victory  off  Lade  (b.c.  495).  Miletus  suffered  the  worst  horrors 
of  a  storm,  and  the  other  cities  and  islands  were  treated  with 
scarcely  less  severity.  This  third  subjugation  of  Ionia  inflicted 
the  most  lasting  blow  on  the  prosperity  of  the  colonies  (b.c. 
493). 

Throughout  his  narrative  of  these  events,  Herodotus  declares 
his  opinion  of  the  impolicy  of  the  interference  of  the  Athenians. 
The  ships  they  voted,  he  says,  were  the  beginning  of  evils  both 
to  the  Greeks  and  the  barbarians.  When  the  news  of  the  burn- 
ing of  Sardis  was  brought  to  Darius,  he  called  for  his  bow,  and 
shot  an  arrow  towards  the  sky,  with  a  prayer  to  Auramazda  for 
help  to  revenge  himself  on  the  Athenians.  Then  he  bade  one  of 
his  servants  repeat  to  him  thrice,  as  he  sat  down  to  dinner,  the 
words,  "  Master,  remember  the  Athenians."  Upon  the  suppres- 
sion of  the  Ionian  revolt,  he  appointed  his  son-in-law  Mardonius 
to  succeed  Artaphernes,  enjoining  him  to  bring  these  insolent 
Athenians  and  Eretrians  to  Susa.  A  great  fleet  started  from  the 
Hellespont,  with  orders  to  sail  round  the  peninsula  of  Mt.  Athos 
to  the  Gulf  of  Therma,  while  Mardonius  advanced  by  land.  His 
march  was  so  harassed  by  the  Thracians,  that  when  he  had 
effected  the  conquest  of  Macedonia,  his  force  was  too  weak  for  any 
further  attempt.  The  fleet  was  overtaken  by  a  storm  oft'  Mt. 
Athos,  on  whose  rocks  three  hundred  ships  were  dashed  to  pieces, 
and  twenty  thousand  men  perished.  Mardonius  returned  in  dis- 
grace to  Asia  with  the  remnant  of  his  fleet  and  army. 

This  failure  only  added  fury  to  the  resolution  of  Darius.  Wliile 
preparing  all  the  resources  of  his  empire  for  a  second  expedition, 
he  sent  round  heralds  to  the  chief  cities  of  Greece,  to  demand  the 
tribute  of  earth  and  water  as  signs  of  his  being  their  rightful  lord. 
Most  of  them  submitted :  Athens  and  Sparta  alone  ventured  on 
defiance.  Both  treated  the  demand  as  an  outrage  which  annulled 
the  sanctity  of  the  herald's  person.  At  Athens  the  envoy  was 
plunged  into  the  loathsome  Barathrum,  a  pit  into  which  the  most 
odious  public  criminals  were  cast.  At  Sparta  the  herald  was 
hurled  into  a  well,  and  bidden  to  seek  his  earth  and  water  there. 
The  submission  of  J^gina,  the  chief  maritime  state  of  Greece, 
and  the  great  enemy  of  Athens,  entailed  the  most  important 
results.  The  act  was  denounced  by  Athens  as  treason  against 
Greece,  and  the  design  was  imputed  to  ^gina  of  calling  in  the 


384  THE  PERSIAN  WARS.  [Chap.  Xm. 

Persians  to  secure  vengeance  on  lier  rival.  Tlie  Athenians  made 
a  formal  complaint  to  Sparta  against  the  "Medism"  of  the 
yEginetans ;  a  cliargc  which  is  henceforth  often  repeated  both 
against  individuals  and  states.  The  Spartans  had  recently  con- 
cluded a  successful  war  with  Argos,  the  only  power  that  could 
dispute  her  supremacy  in  Peloponnesus ;  *  and  now  this  appeal 
from  Athens,  the  second  city  of  Greece,  at  once  recognized  and 
established  Sparta  as  the  leading  Hellenic  state.  In  that 
character,  her  king  Cleomenes  undertook  to  punish  the  Mediz- 
ing  party  in  yEgina  "  for  the  common  good  of  Greece ; "  but 
he  was  met  by  proofs  of  the  intrigues  of  his  colleague  Dema- 
ratus  in  their  favour.  There  had  long  been  a  feud  between 
the  royal  houses  of  the  Eurysthenids  and  Proclids,  and  vre  have 
already  seen  the  invasion  of  Attica  under  Cleomenes  frus- 
trated by  Demaratus.f  This  second  check,  in  -^gina,  sealed  the 
fate  of  Demaratus.  Cleomenes  obtained  his  deposition  on  a  charge 
of  illegitimacy,  and  a  public  insult  from  his  successor  Leotychides 
drove  Demaratus  from  Sparta.  Hotly  pursued  as  a  "  Medist,"  he 
effected  his  escape  to  Darius,  whose  designs  against  Athens  and 
Sparta  were  now  stimulated  by  the  councils  of  their  exiled  sove- 
i-eigns,  Hippias  and  Demaratus.  Meanwhile,  Cleomenes  and  his 
new  colleague  returned  to  ^gina,  which  no  longer  resisted,  and 
having  seized  ten  of  her  leading  citizens,  placed  them  as  hostages 
in  the  hands  of  the  Athenians,  ^gina  was  thus  effectually  dis- 
abled from  throwing  the  weight  of  her  fleet  into  the  scale  of  Persia : 
Athens  and  Sparta,  suspending  their  political  jealousies,  were 
united  when  their  disunion  would  have  been  fatal;  their  conjunc- 
tion drew  after  them  most  of  the  lesser  states  :  and  so  the  Greeks 
stood  forth  for  the  first  time  as  a  nation  prepared  to  act  in 
unison,  under  the  leadership  of  Sparta  (b.c.  491).  That  city 
retained  her  proud  position  till  it  was  forfeited  by  the  misconduct 
of  her  statesmen. 

It  was  time  for  Greece  to  be  united.  In  the  spring  of  b.c.  490, 
the  preparations  of  Darius  were  complete.  A  vast  army  was 
collected  in  a  plain  upon  the  Cilician  shore,  whence  a  fleet  of  six 
hundred  triremes  convoyed  it  to  the  rendezvous  at  Samos.  The 
lonians  and  iEolians  were  compelled  to  serve  on  board  their  own 
ships  as  a  part  of  their  conqueror's  navy.  Like  the  Spanish 
Annada,  the  fleet  carried  fetters  to  bind  the  Athenians  and  Ere- 
trians,  who  were  to  be  brought  back  as  slaves,  when  their  cities 

*  B.C.  496—495.  f  Oiap.  xii.,  pp.  855—6. 


B.C.  490.]  THE  LANDING  AT  MARATHON.  385 

had  been  burnt  to  the  ground.  The  expedition  was  commanded 
by  Datis,  a  Mede,  and  Artaphernes,  son  of  the  former  satrap  of 
Lydia.  The  exiled  tyrant,  Hippias,  undertook  to  guide  them  to  a 
convenient  point  of  descent  on  the  shores  of  Attica.  The  failure  of 
Mardonius  had  suggested  a  wiser  plan  for  the  new  campaign.  The 
armament  sailed  across  the  ^gean,  reducing  the  Cyclades  on  the 
way,  and  meeting  with  no  resistance  till  it  reached  Euboea.  The 
people  of  Carystus,  the  southernmost  town  of  the  island,  yielded 
on  seeing  their  fields  ravaged,  and  the  Persians  landed  without 
opposition  before  the  devoted  city  of  Eretria.  Such  was  the  despair 
and  dissension  within  its  walls,  that  the  four  thousand  Athenian 
cleruchi  of  Calchis,*  who  had  been  sent  to  aid  the  defence,  received 
timely  warning  that  treason  was  meditated,  and  retired  to  Attica. 
Yet  the  Eretrians  made  a  brave  defence  for  six  days.  On  the 
seventh,  the  traitors  opened  the  gates,  and  the  doom  pronounced 
by  Darius  was  executed  to  the  letter.  Herodotus  says  that 
the  Persians,  as  before  at  Chios  and  at  Samos,  joined  hands 
so  as  to  form  a  chain  across  the  territory  of  Eretria,  and  made  a 
clean  sweep  of  every  living  creature.f  The  Eretrian  captives,  with 
the  spoils  of  their  city,  were  placed  in  security  on  the  little  island 
of  ^gileia,  while  Hippias  guided  the  Persian  fleet  down  the 
channel  of  the  Euripus,  to  the  spot  on  the  Attic  coast  he  had 
chosen  for  their  debarkation-^the  bay  of  Marathon.  Flushed 
thus  far  with  success,  he  might  well  deem  it  a  favourable  omen 
that  he  had  performed  with  his  father  this  same  voyage  from 
Eretria  to  Marathon,  when  Pisistratus  was  finally  restored.  The 
night  before,  he  had  dreamed  that  he  was  lying  in  his  mother's 
arms ;  and  he  thought  the  gods  had  promised  him  a  quiet  old  age 
of  secure  power  in  his  native  land.  But,  as  he  directed  the 
landing,  there  occurred  one  of  those  trivial  incidents  which  were 
supposed  to  fulfil  a  dream  to  the  letter,  only  to  cheat  more  sub- 
stantial hopes,  and  he  exclaimed,  "  After  all,  the  land  is  not  ours, 
and  we  shall  never  be  able  to  bring  it  under."  He  knew  his 
countrymen  well  enough  to  have  a  better  ground  for  despondency 
than  even  an  omen  could  supply  to  the  superstition  of  a  Greek, 
It  was  early  in  September,  b.c.  490,  that  the  Persian  host  disem- 
barked at  Marathon. 

Athens  now  alone  remained  to  fulfil  the  object  of  the  expedition, 

*  See  p.  356.  * 

\  The  impression  produced  may  be  mainly  correct,  but  the  statement  is  not  to  be 
accepted  to  the  letter.     A  sufficient  number  of  the  Eretrians  were  left  behind  to  build 
a  new  city,  which  was  already  flourishing  ten  years  later. 
TOL.  I. — 25 


886  THE  PERSIAN  WARS.  [Chap.  XIH. 

and  Athens  had  to  bear  the  hrunt  of  the  danger  by  lierselt'.  There 
is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  Sparta  evaded  her  obligations ;  but  the 
direct  movement  of  the  Pei-sians  across  the  ^gean  liad  jirobably 
taken  all  Greece  somewhat  by  surprise;  and  when  the  crisis 
came,  a  religious  scrui)le  caused  a  delay  which  might  have  been 
fatal.  The  courier,  Phiddipides,  despatched  from  Athens  as  soon 
as  Eretria  had  fallen,  })erformed  the  journey  of  150  miles,  on  foot, 
in  forty-eight  hours.*  lie  laid  before  the  Ephoi"s  an  urgent  request 
for  aid,  which  was  readily  promised.  But  it  wanted  nearly  a 
week  to  the  full  moon,  and  religious  scruples  would  not  pennit  a 
march  during  the  interval.  That  this  was  no  mere  excuse,  is 
proved  by  the  rapid  march  of  the  two  thousand  Spartans,  who, 
having  started  as  soon  as  the  moon  had  changed,  reached  the 
frontier  of  Attica  on  the  third  day.  But  on  the  day  before,  the 
fate  of  Greece  had  been  decided,  and  immortal  glory  gained  by 
Athens.f 

We  can  hardly,  indeed,  believe  that  Sparta  would  have  perilled 
her  influence  in  Greece  by  holding  back  at  such  a  crisis.  But,  in 
the  ferment  of  agitation  at  Athens,  and  within  twenty  years  of  the 
Spartan  invasion  to  restore  Isagoras,  such  a  suspicion  would  natu- 
rally be  felt,  and  it  must  have  added  to  the  indecision  which  divided 
the  counsels  of  the  Athenians.  Besides  the  terror  inspired  by  the 
threats  of  Darius,  the  fate  of  Ionia,  the  submission  of  the  Cyclades, 
and  the  fall  of  Eretria, — it  should  be  remembered  how  lately  the  city 
had  been  rent  by  opposing  factions,  and  how  short  had  been  the  trial 
of  the  institutions  of  Cleisthenes.  Hippias  was  keeping  up  a  cor- 
respondence with  his  partisans  in  Attica  and  in  Athens  itself. 
The  plan  of  vesting  the  military  command  in  ten  generals,  with 

*  "  Mr.  Kinneir  remarks  that  the  Persian  Cassids,  or  foot  messengers,  will  travel  for 
several  days  successively  at  the  rate  of  sixty  or  seventy  miles  a  day." — Geographkal 
Memoirs  of  Persia,  p.  44 ;  quoted  by  Mr.  Grote,  History  of  Greece,  vol.  iv.  p.  460. 

f  It  was  on  the  ninth  day  of  the  moon  that  Thidippides  arrived  at  Sparta.  The 
moon  would  be  full  on  the  15th  day.  The  Spartans  marched  on  the  following 
day,  the  16th,  and  reached  Athens  late  on  the  18th.  They  marched  on  and  saw 
the  battle-field  with  the  bodies  still  unburied,  which  would  hardly  have  been  the 
case  in  that  climate  more  than  two  days  after  the  battle.  These  calculations,  from 
the  data  supplied  by  Herodotus,  confirm  the  statement  of  Plato,  that  the  Spartans 
arrived  at  Athens  the  day  after  the  battle,  which  would  thus  be  fought  on  the 
l^th  of  t/ic  moon.  The  month,  as  we  learn  from  Plutarch,  was  Boedroniion,  which 
corresponds  nearly  to  September.  Plutarch  says  that  the  day  of  the  battle  was  the 
6th  of  Boedromion,  which  is  evidently  inconsistent  with  the  month's  being  strictly 
lunar.  We  are  indebted  to  the  kindness  of  tne  Astronomer  Royal  for  the  information, 
that  the  moon  was  full  on  September  9th,  about  four  o'clock  in  the  morning.  The ' 
date  of  the  battle  of  Marathon  may  therefore  be  fixed,  with  great  probability,  to  the 
11th  of  September. 


B.C.  490.]       MARCH  OF  THE  GREEKS  TO  MARATHON.  387 

the  Arclion  Polemarcli,  liad  to  be  tested  for  the  first  time  in  tlie 
presence  of  the  whole  force  of  Persia ;  and  at  the  critical  moment 
the  generals  were  equally  divided.  But  among  them  was  one  man 
who  saved  Athens  by  the  ascendancy  of  his  genius. 

Miltiades  had  retained  his  government  of  the  Cheronese,  either 
because  his  advice  to  destroy  the  bridge  over  the  Danube  was  not 
betrayed,  or  because  Darius  chose  a  prudent  magnanimity.  He 
availed  himself  of  the  confusion  of  the  Ionian  revolt  to  subdue  the 
islands  of  Lemnos  and  Imbros,  with  the  aid  of  an  Athenian  force, 
a  service  never  forgotten  by  his  countrymen,  and  an  act  of  open 
hostility  to  Persia.  Then  came  the  suppression  of  the  revolt,  and 
the  appearance  of  the  Phoenician  fleet  off  the  Hellespont.  Hastily 
embarking  his  property  and  nearest  friends,  Miltiades  fled,  so  hotly 
pursued  that  one  of  his  five  ships,  carrying  his  son  Metiochus,  was 
taken  before  he  reached  a  haven  of  safety  in  Imbros,  whence  the 
remaining  four  got  safe  to  the  port  of  Athens.  Miltiades  had  now 
to  stand  his  trial  on  the  capital  charge  of  tyranny,  but  his  recent 
services  procured  him  an  honourable  acquittal.  His  bold  career 
had  established  his  reputation  at  Athens,*  and  he  was  chosen  the 
general  of  his  tribe,  in  prospect  of  the  Persian  invasion.  Among 
his  colleagues  was  Aristides,  and  probably  Themistocles,  names 
which  will  soon  fill  their  due  space  in  our  narrative.f 

Under  such  leaders  the  whole  force  of  Athens  marched  out  to 
meet  the  invaders,  and  beheld  from  the  heights  of  Pentelicus  the 
plain  and  bay  of  Marathon  crowded  with  their  tents  and  ships. 
The  story  of  the  battle  is  tpld  by  Herodotus,  who  heard  it  from 
the  men  who  fought  there,  with  his  usual  fondness  for  striking 
incidents.:]:  But  this  brief  account  leaves  several  questions  unde- 
cided, and  it  is  entirely  wanting  in  those  details  which  enable  a 
reader  to  look  down  upon  a  battle-field  as  if  spread  out  beneath 
his  sight,  and  so  to  understand  the  movements  of  the  combatants. 
That  unchanged  aspect  of  the  scene,  on  which  the  poet  dwells  in 
the  lines  at  the  head  of  this  chapter,  helps  us  to  supply  what  the 
historian  has  left  untold.  At  this  day,  just  as  twenty-three  cen- 
turies and  a  half  ago — 

"  The  mountains  look  on  Marathon, 
And  Marathon  looks  on  the  sea." 

*  Herod,  vi.  132. 

f  Themistocles  was  certainly  at  Marathon,  though  it  is  doubtful  whether  he  was  a 
general     He  had  been  archon  in  B.C.  493. 

J  ^sehylus,  who  himself  fought  at  Marathon,  throws  some  light  upon  the  battle 
by  allusions  in  his  play  of  "The  Persians,"  which  was  written  to  celebrate  the 
victories  of  Salamis  and  Plataea. 


THE  PERSIAN  WARS. 


[Chap.  XIII. 


888 

Just  below  the  great  lieadlaiid  conniiaiidinj;  the  s.nitheni  en- 
trance to  the  channel  which  separates  it  from  Kuh.i.a,  the  eastern 
coast  of  Attica  is  indented  by  a  fine  bay.    It  is  enclosed  on  the  north 


PLAN   OP  THE   PLAIN   OF  MARATHON. 

A  A.  rosition  of  the  Greeks  on  the  day  of  the  battle. 
B  B.  Position  of  the  Persians  on  the  day  of  the  battle. 

1.  Mt.  Argaliki. 

2.  Mt.  Aforismo. 

3.  Mt.  Kotroni. 

4.  Mt.  Kordki. 

5.  Mt.  Dhrakonera. 

6.  Small  Marsh. 

7.  Great  Marsh. 

8.  Fountain  Macaria. 

9.  Salt  Lake  of  Dhrakonera. 

10.  Herack'ium. 

11.  Temple  of  Athena  Hellotia  ? 


12.  Village  of  Lower  SuU. 

13.  Soro:  tumulus  of  Athenians. 

14.  Pyrgo:  tomb  of  Miltiades. 

Boads : 

a  a.  To  Athens,  between  Mts.  Penteli- 

cus  and  Hymettus  through  Pal- 

lene. 
h  h.  To  Athens,  through  Cephisia. 
c  c.  To  Athens,  through  Aphidna. 
dd.  ToRhamnus. 


by  a  long  rocky  promontory,  called,  from  its  shape,  Cynosura 
(the  Doo-^s  Tail),  and  on  the  south  by  a  lesser  spur  of  Mount 
Brilesus,''or  Pentelicus.     The  limestone  hills  sweep  round  from 


B.C.  490.]  POSITION"   OF  MARATHON.  389 

(".ape  to  cape,  leaving  at  their  feet  a  plain  of  a  crescent  shape, 
about  six  miles  in  leugtli  and  less  than  three  miles  wide  in  the 
centre.  It  was  the  ancient  site  of  a  tetrapolis,  forming  one  of  the 
twelve  Attic  districts  before  the  time  of  Theseus ;  and  one  of  its 
four  villages  was  called,  from  a  local  hero,  Marathon.  The  name  ' 
occurs  in  Homer ;  the  place  was  sacred  to  Hercules,  and  associated 
with  some  of  the  oldest  Attic  legends.  Here  Xuthus,  the  father 
of  Ion,  had  reigned;  and  here  the  Athenians  had  helped  the 
Heraclid  refugees  to  defeat  their  persecutor  Eurystheus.  "  The 
pleasant  mead  of  Marathon,"  as  it  is  called  by  Aristophanes,  is  a 
grassy  level,*  almost  entirely  free  from  trees,  terminated  at  both 
ends  by  marshes,  dry  in  summer,  but  flooded  in  the  autumn, 
that  on  the  north  being  much  the  larger.  These  marshes  con- 
fined the  ground  available  for  an  army  to  a  length  of  between 
two  and  three  miles ;  but  a  strip  of  firm  land  extends  between 
the  marshes  and  the  sea,  along  the  whole  length  of  the  beach, 
upon  which  the  Persian  galleys  were  drawn  up,  or,  as  some 
suppose,  remained  at  anchor  close  to  it.  The  ships  of  burthen 
and  the  ^orse-transports  were  anchored  in  the  bay,  and  the 
Persian  army  lay  encamped  upon  the  plain.  On  the  land 
side,  the  hills  are  crowned  with  cedars,  pines,  and  olive-trees; 
and  their  lower  slopes  are  covered  with  "the  myrtle,  arbutus, 
and  the  other  low  odoriferous  shrubs  that  everywhere  perfume 
the  Attic  air." 

Through  the  passes  of  these  hills,  three  roads  lead  up  to  Athens. 
The  central  and  most  direct  is  that  through  Yra7ia,  the  supposed 
site  of  Marathon.  The  small  Athenian  army,  on  arriving  at  the 
heights,  is  presumed  to  have  taken  up  its  position  so  as  to  com- 
mand this  road ;  equally  ready  to  fall  back  and  meet  the  enemy 
behind  the  ridge,  if  they  penetrated  it  by  the  more  circuitous 
route  through  (Enoe  or,  if  the  Persians  attempted  to  pass  to  the 
left,  over  the  spur  of  Pentelicus,  the  Athenians  might  have  fallen 
on  their  exposed  flank.f  The  position  was  alike  strong  for  de- 
fence, and  commanding  for  attack ;  and  weighty  arguments  might 
be  urged  for  either  course. 

It  is  not  easy  to  place  ourselves  in  the  position  of  the  Athenian 

*  As  at  Waterloo,  the  surface  of  the  ground  is  now  broken,  though  far  more  worthily, 
by  the  mound  which  was  raised  over  the  Athenian  slain. 

\  In  ancient  warfare,  an  attack  on  the  right  flank  was  considered  far  more  perilous 
than  one  on  the  left,  because  the  left  side  was  covered  by  the  shield.  This  was 
one  reason  why  the  right  of  the  line  was  the  post  of  honour,  as  being  the  post  of 
danger. 


390  THE  PERSIAN  WARS.  [Chap.  XIII. 

generals.  Our  minds  are  dazzled  Ly  the  glories  of  the  event,  and 
of  the  many  similar  viet(M-ies  down  to  the  days  of  Plassy  and 
Meeanee.  With  a  small  united  band  of  disciplined  freemen  opposed 
to  a  host  of  Asiatic  slaves,  it  would  seem  that  the  resolution  to 
attack  was  at  once  the  pledge  of  victory.  One  bold  swift  charge 
upon  the  unwieldy  host,  who  are  now  paralysed  with  astonish- 
ment at  the  daring  of  their  foes — one  vain  effort  of  resistance  by 
their  best  troops — and  then  a  confused  scene  of  j^anic,  flight,  and 
fierce  pursuit : — such  is  the  conception  often  formed  of  Marathon 
and  the  like  battles.  But  the  Greeks  who  fought  at  Marathon 
could  be  sure  of  no  such  easy  victory.  The  army  before  them 
was  no  mere  horde  of  effeminate  barbarians,  whose  very  numbers 
ensured  their  confusion  and  defeat.  They  represented  the  power 
which,  little  more  than  half  a  century  ago,  had  overthrown  the 
three  empires  of  Western  Asia,  subdued  the  Asiatic  Greeks,  and 
conquered  Egypt ; — the  power  which,  newly  organized  by  their 
present  warlike  king,  had  quelled  the  rebellions  of  Media  and 
Babylon,  extended  the  frontiers  of  the  empire,  crushed  the  revolt 
of  Ionia,  and  subjected  the  islands  of  the  ^gaean.  The  Pei*sians 
were  the  conquerors  of  Greeks,  and  not  only  of  barbarians.  Their 
unbroken  course  of  victory  had  reached  the  shores  of  Hellas  itself 
in  the  sad  example  of  Eretria,  The  strangeness  of  their  dress  and 
arms  had  not  yet  come  to  be  regarded  as  signs  of  weakness.  The 
rhetorical  exaggeration  of  Herodotus  shows  at  least  that  the  Per- 
sians were  not  an  enemy  to  be  despised.  The  Athenians,  he  says, 
"  were  the  first  of  the  Greeks  who  dared  to  look  upon  the  Median 
garb,  and  to  face  men  clad  in  that  fashion.  Until  this  time,  the 
very  name  of  the  Medes  had  been  a  terror  to  the  Greeks  to 
hear."* 

It  is  one  of  the  strange  omissions  of  Herodotus,  that  he  gives 
no  account  of  the  strength  of  either  army,  telling  us  only  the 
numbers  of  the  slain.  Plato  makes  the  Persians  half  a  million ; 
and  other  authorities  vary  from  200,000  to  600,000,  A  careful 
calculation  based  on  the  known  strength  of  the  fleet,  600  triremes, 
seems  to  prove  the  last  number  to  be  not  far  from  the  truth.f 
The  crews  of  the  triremes  are  estimated  at  120,000,  and  of  the 
horse-transports  at  40,000 ;  the  Persian  and  Saeian  warriors,  who 
were  the  flower  of  the  army,  at  30,000 ;  the  cavalry  at  10,000 ; 

*  Herod,  vi.  112. 

f  All  these  points  of  details  arc  fully  discussed  in  the  following  works : — Leake, 
Demi  of  Attica,  pp.  99,  foil. ;  Creasy,  Fifteen  Decisive  Battles ;  Kawlinson's  Herodotus, 
Notes  to  Book  vi.,  and  Appendix,  Essay  i. 


B.C.  490.]  STRENGTH  OF  THE  TWO  ARMIES.  391 

besides  about  10,000  Greeks  pressed  into  the  service,  from  the 
conquered  islands.  It  is  assumed  tbat  about  half  the  crews  would 
be  required  to  remain  on  board;*  and,  making  some  allowance 
for  the  sick,  the  actual  numbers  on  the  "field  of  Marathon  would 
be  from  100,000  to  120,000.  Among  these,  the  only  heavy-armed 
troops  were  the  30,000  Persians  and  Sacians. 

Of  the  Athenian  force  we  have  no  earlier  enumeration  than 
in  the  writers  of  the  Augustan  age,  who  make  it  9,000  or  10,000 
men.  Looking  at  what  we  know  of  the  number  of  the  Athenian 
citizens,  and  the  force  they  sent  to  the  battle  of  Plataea,  we  may 
accept  the  9,000  as  the  complement  of  heavy  armed  soldiers, 
adding  an  equal  number  of  light-armed  slaves ;  for  we  know  that 
great  efforts  were  made  to  enrol  this  class.f  But  this  little  army 
was  reinforced  in  a  manner  which  forms  one  of  the  most  affecting 
incidents  of  ancient  history.  They  were  already  encamped  on  the 
heights  above  Marathon,  when  they  were  joined  by  the  Platseans, 
who  had  marched  out  with  their  whole  force,  to  requite  the 
Athenians,  in  the  hour  of  their  extremity,  for  their  protection 
against  the  tyranny  of  Thebes.  For  this  noble  act  the  Platseans 
were  rewarded  with  a  certain  share  of  the  Athenian  citizenship, 
and  they  were  henceforth  included  in  the  public  prayers  of 
Athens.  The  like  attachment  involved  the  destruction  of  their 
city  in  the  Peloponnesian  War ;  and  to  the  latest  age  of  Greek 
freedom  it  was  told  how  the  Platseans,  alone  of  all  the  Greeks, 
had  stood  by  the  Athenians  in  the  fore-front  of  the  danger  at 
Marathon. 

The  total  force  of  the  Greeks  was  thus  raised  to  20,000  men ; 
and  the  disparity  between  the  two  armies  was  five  or  six  to  one — 
about  the  same  proportion  as  afterwards  at  Plateea.  The  heavy- 
armed,  on  whom  the  brunt  of  the  battle  w^ould  depend,  were 
about  three  to  one.  Battles  have  often  since  been  rained  against 
even  greater  odds ;  but  at  Marathon  the  Persians  were  truly  for- 
midable as  soldiers,  and  still  more  formidable  from  their  unbroken 
course  of  victory.  It  was  not,  perhaps,  impossible,  by  a  bold 
advance,  to  have  passed  over  the  bodies  of  their  foes  along  the 
road  to  Athens ;  but  Hippias  was  there  to  tell  the  Persian  generals 
how  dear  such  a  victory  would  be  bought ;  and  Darius  had  not 
sent  them  to  purchase  it  by  the  blood  of  his  best  troops.     He 

*  This  is  on  the  assumption  that  the  fleet  remained  at  anchor.     If  the  triremes  were 
drawn  up  on  the  beach,  nearly  all  their  crews  would  be  available  as  combatants. 
\  Pausanias  I.,  c.  32,  §  3.     The  Athenians  had  neither  cavalry  nor  archers. 


.^92  THE  PEltSIAX  WARS.  [Chap.  XIII. 

looked  to  see  the  Athenians  driven  like  a  flock  of  sheep  before  his 
throne,  and  there  Avas  reason  to  hope  for  a  Lloodless  conquest 
through  the  intrigues  of  the  Pisistratids.  Those  same  intrigues, 
on  the  other  hand,  rendered  delay  most  dangerous  to  the  Athenians, 
■while  the  answer  brought  by  Phidippides  from  Sparta  caused 
fresh  discourao-ement.  But  was  it  not  better  to  wait  in  their 
strong  position  above  Marathon  for  the  arrival  of  the  Spartan 
succours?  To  march  down  to  battle  on  the  plain  would  involve, 
besides  the  unequal  conflict  the  danger  of  being  outflanked  by  the 
enemy's  numbers  and  cut  to  pieces  by  his  cavalry.  So  the  Ten 
Generals  were  equally  divided ;  and  the  decision  hung  on  the 
casting  vote  of  the  polemarch  Callimachus.  We  should  have 
liked  to  know  the  parts  taken  by  Aristides  and  Themistocles. 
The  latter  would  probably  be  found  on  the  side  of  action ;  but 
history  reserves  for  him  the  palm  of  council  at  Salamis  ;  that  of 
Marathon  belongs  to  Miltiades  alone.  Of  all  the  generals,  he  only 
had  experience  to  discern  those  elements  of  Oriental  weakness 
which  were  yet  to  be  revealed,  and  the  skill  to  suit  his  plan  of 
battle  to  the  enemy.  He  saw,  not  only  that  safety  lay  in  victory, 
but  that  the  very  isolation  of  Athens  opened  a  boundless  prospect 
to  her  ambition.  He  implored  Callimachus  to  earn  for  himself  a 
name  more  glorious  than  that  of  Harmodius  and  Aristogeiton,  by 
at  once  saving  his  country  from  the  fate  prepared  for  her  under 
Hippias,  and  raising  her  to  become  the  first  state  in  Greece.  If 
they  delayed  to  fight,  the  disturbance  of  men's  minds  at  Athens 
would  soon  end  in  submission ;  but  if  the  battle  were  fought 
before  unsoundness  revealed  itself  in  the  city,  and  while  Heaven 
still  granted  them  fair  play,  they  were  well  able  to  overcome  the 
enemy.  Callimachus  gave  his  vote  for  battle,  and  the  four 
generals  M'ho  had  supported  Miltiades  in  the  debate  gave  up  to 
him  their  turn  of  command.* 

Miltiades,  however,  waited  for  his  proper  day  of  command 
before  engaging.  It  would  be  wise  to  leave  no  ground  for  jea- 
lousy, or  for  the  charge  of  having  assumed  undue  responsibility. 
His  turn  may  have  been  close  at  hand,  and  his  preparations  might 

*  Each  of  the  Ten  Generals  commanded  for  a  day  in  rotation.  It  is  an  error  to 
suppose  that  all  the  generals  joined  in  the  renunciation  of  the  four.  (See  Herod,  vi., 
110.)  As  to  the  time  of  the  debate,  the  testimony  of  Herodotus  seems  quite  to  out- 
weigh Mr.  Grote's  reasons  for  placing  it  at  Athens  before  the  march.  The  case  only 
fairly  arose  when  the  armies  were  in  sight  of  each  other;  and  the  aUusions  to  the 
influence  of  the  course  taken  by  the  army  on  the  state  of  feeling  in  the  city  seems  quite 
decisive. 


B.C.  490.]  ORDER  OF  BATTLE  OX  BOTH  SIDES.  393 

well  occupy  tlie  interval.  The  decision  to  fight  once  taken,  there 
was  the  less  need  for  haste ;  and  he  seems  to  have  had  special 
reason  for  choosing  his  opportunity.  Hippias  had  selected  the 
plain  of  Marathon  especially  on  account  of  its  fitness  for  cavalry 
evolutions ;  and  yet  no  mention  is  made  of  cavalry  in  the  battle. 
The  only  satisfactory  explanation — though  others  have  been  pro- 
posed— is,  that  the  cavalry  had  been  sent  away  to  find  forage,  and 
that  Miltiades  seized  the  opportunity  of  their  absence  to  make  the 
attack. 

On  both  sides  the  order  of  battle  was  the  extended  phalanx,  or 
line  several  men  deep,  which  seems  to  have  been  the  only  array  in 
use  up  to  this  time.  The  Persian  line  was  drawn  up  about  a  mile 
from  the  sea,  with  the  heavy-armed  Persians  and  Saca3  in  the 
centre,  which  has  always  been  in  Oriental  armies  the  post  of 
honour ;  the  contingents  of  the  satrapies  were  posted  on  either 
wing,  in  all  their  picturesque  variety  of  arms  and  dress.  Their 
front  extended  about  three  miles  between  the  two  marshes  that 
here  bound  the  plain — a  space  which  might  be  nearly  filled  by 
their  best  troops,  in  their  customary  order  of  four  deep.  The 
light-armed  troops  and  archers  were  placed,  as  usual,  in  the 
rear. 

To  match  the  extended  front  of  the  enemy  and  guard  against 
their  sweeping  round  his  flanks,  and  so  taking  him  in  the  rear, 
Miltiades  made  a  new  disposition  of  the  Grecian  phalanx.  Its 
usual  array  was  eight  deep,  and,  so  drawn  up,  the  10,000  hop- 
lites  would  have  covered,  at  the  most,  little  more  than  two-thirds 
of  a  mile — enough  to  block  up  the  valley  of  Yrana  while  they 
remained  on  the  defensive,  but  sure  to  be  outflanked  when  they 
descended  into  the  plain.  Miltiades  extended  his  front  by  weak- 
ening the  centre,  rightly  deeming  the  wings  the  critical  points. 
If  the  wings  were  only  as  much  as  four  deep  for  a  space  of  two 
hundred  yards,  the  centre  must  have  consisted  only  of  one  file ; 
so  that  Miltiades  ventured  on  the  extreme  of  that  formation  in 
line^  which  is  the  peculiarity  of  British  tactics,  as  opposed  to  the 
phalanx  or  column  of  almost  every  other  nation.*  The  light- 
armed  troops  would  doubtless  be  employed  chiefly  as  supports  to 

*  This  calculation  is  taken  from  Professor  Kawlinson.  Making  every  allowance 
for  the  probability  that  Herodotus  states  the  equalizing  of  the  fronts  too  literally, 
the  central  line  could  not  have  been  more  than  two  deep.  The  usual  Enghsh  line 
is  two  deep,  with  a  third  Une  of  subalterns  and  other  supernumeraries.  At  Bala- 
klava,  during  the  heat  of  the  battle,  the  "  thin  red  line  "  of  the  Guards  formed  only  a 
single  rank. 


394  THE  PERSIAN  WARS.  [Chap.  XIII. 

this  weakened  centre.  The  men  of  each  tribe  stood  together  in 
the  array,  securing  mutual  encouragement  and  emulation.  The 
polemarch  Callimachus  lield  the  post  of  honour  on  the  riglit ;  the 
second  place,  on  the  left,  was  given  to  the  phalanx  of  the  Pla- 
tseans;  while  the  centre  was  entrusted  to  the  steady  calmness  of 
Aristides  and  the  daring  courage  of  Themistocles. 

All  now  depended  upon  the  vigour  of  the  onset.  Had  the 
Greeks  advanced  across  the  plain  with  their  wonted  steady  pace, 
singing  tlie  pa^^an — the  war-hymn  to  Apollo — they  must  have  been 
galled  by  the  Persian  archery,  and  perhaps  easily  surrounded.  So, 
when  Miltiades  had  sacrificed,  and  the  omens  were  pronounced 
favourable,  the  whole  Greek  line  crossed  the  mile  of  ground  tliat 
divided  them  from  the  enemy  at  a  run,  and  fell  upon  them  while 
astonished  at  this  novel  charge.*  Put  the  battle  was  not  yet 
gained ;  tlie  front  ranks  joined  in  furious  conflict,  and  the  cloud  of 
arrows  from  the  Persian  rear  darkened  the  heavens  above  them.f 
The  phalanx  of  Greek  spearmen  on  the  wings,  protected  by  their 
shields  and  armour,  found  no  match  in  the  light  bucklers  and 
scimetars  of  the  Asiatics ;  but  in  the  centre,  where  spears  were 
opposed  to  spears,  and  the  Athenians  were  met  by  the  Persian 
veterans,  the  force  of  numbers  prevailed.  How  far  the  Greek 
centre  gave  way  is  one  of  the  problems  of  the  battle.  Herodotus 
represents  them  as  flying  in  full  rout  up  the  valley,  either  of 
Marathon  or  Qj]noe,  pursued  by  the  main  body  of  the  Persians. 
But  the  victorious  wings  fell  upon  the  flanks  of  the  crowded 
column ;  the  fugitives  rallied  in  its  front ;  the  tide  of  battle 
turned ;  and  tlie  Persian  host  fled  for  refuge  to  their  ships.  The 
Greeks  pursued  them  to  the  water's  edge,  and  many  were  entangled 
in  the  marshes  that  lay  between  them  and  the  beach.  Eager 
efforts  were  now  made  to  capture  or  burn  the  ships,  and  the  combat 
that  ensued  recalls  the  attack  of  the  Trojans  on  the  fleet  of  the 
Acha3ans.:{:  Cynsegirus,  the  brother  of  tlie  poet  -^schylus,  had 
seized  a  ship  by  the  feathery  ornament  that  crowned  its  stei'n,§ 

*  The  athletic  training  of  the  Greeks  removes  all  wonder  from  this  exploit.  The 
French  Zouaves  traverse  miles  together  at  a  swinging  trot,  little  slower  than  the 
"  double."  The  idea  that  the  Athenians  were  disordered  by  the  mode  of  their  advance 
is  opposed  to  the  express  statement  of  Herodotus. 

^  Aristoph.,  Vespae,  1082. 

:j:  Homer,  Iliad,  xiii.  i. 

§  The  aphlaston,  or,  in  Latin,  aplustre.  It  was  formed  of  several  curved  pieces  of 
board  set  in  the  same  plane  (see  the  figure  in  Smith's  Dictionary  of  AiUiqxMcs,  art 
Navis).  The  ancient  ships  were  drawn  up  with  their  stems  to  the  beach,  ready  to  put 
to  sea. 


B.C.  490.]  RETUPvI^  OF  THE  PERSIAN'S  TO  ASIA.  395 

when  liis  right  hand  was  severed  by  an  axe ;  nor  was  his  a  solitary 
case.  The  chief  loss  of  the  Athenians  was  suffered  in  this  conflict 
at  the  ships ;  here  fell  the  general  Stesagoras,  and  here  the  pole- 
march  Callimachus  leceived,'  in  a  glorious  death,  the  fittest  recom- 
pense of  his  heroic  decision. 

A  few  ships  only  were  detained,  and  the  successful  embarkation 
proves  the  military  qualities  of  the  Persian  anny,  as  well  as  the  skill 
of  their  commanders.  They  had  spirit  left  to  attempt  to  snatch 
a  triumph  that  would  have  outweighed  their  defeat.  Instead  of 
bearing  off  for  Euboea,  they  sailed  down  the  coast  of  Attica 
intending  to  double  the  promontory  of  Sunium,  and  surprise 
Athens  before  the  army  could  return.  Miltiades  saw  the  meaning 
of  their  course ;  and,  on  a  neighbouring  promontory,  an  uplifted 
shield,  flashing  in  the  rays  of  the  setting  sun,  betrayed  a  treason- 
able signal  from  the  shore.  For  the  second  time  on  the  same 
day  the  prompt  energy  of  Miltiades  saved  his  country.  He  left 
Aristides  and  his  tribe  to  keep  watch  in  the  field  covered  with  the 
slain  and  the  Persian  spoils,  and  led  his  army  by  a  rapid  night 
march  back  to  Athens.*  He  arrived  but  just  in  time.  The 
Persian  fleet  appeared  in  the  morning  off  the  coast  of  Phalerum ; 
but  the  sudden  return  of  Miltiades  overawed  the  partisans  of 
Hippias,  who  took  his  last  tantalizing  view  of  the  heights  of  the 
Acropolis.  Finding  no  encouragement  to  disembark,  Datis  put 
out  again  to  sea ;  and,  having  gathered  up  his  spoils,  with  the 
Eretrian  prisoners  from  the  island  of  ^gilea,  threaded  his  back- 
ward course  among  the  Cyclades.  The  tyrant  Hippias  did  not 
long  survive  the  defeat  of  his  last  hopes.  One  account  is  that  he 
fell  in  the  battle ;  another,  that  he  died  on  one  of  the  islands  of  the 
u^gsean,  on  his  return  to  Asia.  The  fate  of  the  Eretrian  captives 
demands  a  passing  word.  They  arrived  at  Susa,  with  their 
numbers  thinned  by  the  toils  of  the  march  up  through  Asia,  and 
were  placed  before  Darius.  Their  sad  plight  stirred  his  compas- 
sion, even  in  the  first  bitterness  of  his  disappointment.  He 
settled  them  at  a  spot  not  far  from  Susa,  on  the  road  to  Sardis, 
where  they  were  visited  by  Herodotus.     Before  saying  more  of  the 

*  Among  his  other  unfortunate  omissions,  Herodotus  gives  no  certain  indications 
of  the  time  of  day  when  the  battle  was  fought.  Plutarch  makes  Miltiades  return  to 
Athens  on  the  day  after  the  battle.  From  all  the  indications,  it  seems  most  probable 
that  the  morning  was  occupied  by  the  tactical  arrangements  of  Miltiades,  the  battle 
fought  in  the  afternoon,  and  the  march  back  to  Athens  accomplished  in  the  night. 
The  September  moon,  approaching  her  highest  decHnation,  a  few  days  past  the  full, 
shone  at  once  on  the  white  sails  of  the  Persian  fleet,  the  path  of  the  Athenian  army, 
and  the  night-watch  of  Aristides. 


396  THE  PERSIAN  WARS.  [Chap.  XIIL 

effect  produced  upon  the  Great  King  by  tlic  disastrous  failure  of 
liis  generals,  we  must  east  a  backward  glance  at  Marathon,  where 
we  left  Aristides  watching  over  the  dead. 

Before  the  corpses  were  buried,  the  Spartans,  who  had  reached 
Athens  too  late  for  the  battle,  arrived  upon  the  field  to  see  the 
dead  bodies  of  the  Persians,  and  having  praised  the  Athenians 
for  their  achievements,  they  returned  home.  Six  thousand  four 
hundred  of  the  Persians  were  left  upon  the  field,  while  the  Greeks 
lost  only  192.*  The  Athenians  interred  the  bodies  of  their 
enemies  after  they  had  buried  their  own  dead.  It  was  the  custom 
with  the  Greeks  to  carry  home  the  bodies  of  their  comrades  who 
fell  in  battle,  to  be  honoured  with  a  public  funeral.  The  heroes  of 
Marathon  obtained  the  unwonted  honour  of  resting  on  the  battle- 
field itself  under  the  Soros,  or  tumulus,  which  is  still  seen  by 
passing  ships  rising  above  its  level.  Ten  pillars,  one  for  each 
tribe,  bore  the  names  of  the  slain ;  and  the  epitaph  was  wi-itten  by 
Simonides : — 

"  At  Marathon  for  Greece  the  Athenians  fought, 
And  low  the  Medians'  gilded  power  they  brought." 

It  was  well  for  the  poet  to  call  the  Athenians  the  champions  of 
Greece ;  could  he  have  seen  the  course  of  history  as  a  whole,  he 
might  have  named  them  the  champions  of  the  world.  For  the 
real  question  decided  on  the  plain  of  Marathon  was  whether  the 
rising  liberties  of  Europe,  with  all  their  precious  fruits,  material 
and  intellectual,  should  be  crushed  beneath  the  despotism  which 
had  weighed  on  Asia  for  two  thousand  years.  A  more  deadly 
struggle  was  still  needed  to  secure  the  victory;  but  it  was  at 
Marathon  that  the  moral  victory  was  gained  which  involved  the 
triumphs  of  Salamis  and  Platasa — the  Greeks  learnt  that  the 
Persians  could  be  conquered.  "  Of  what  avail,"  asked  Napoleon, 
"would  have  been  the  millions  of  men  moving  down  from  all 
parts  of  Europe,  if  the  English  and  Prussians  had  been  beaten  at 
Waterloo  ?" — and  less  doubtfully  still  may  it  be  asked — "  What 
resistance  could  Greece,  or  even  Europe,  have  made  if  the 
Athenians  and  Plata3ans  had  been  crushed  at  Marathon  ?"  Sparta 
mio-ht  have  anticipated  Thermopylae  in  one  universal  slaughter ; 
but  the  rest  of  Greece  would  assuredly  have  submitted.     The  wave 

*  The  "•reat  disparity  is  not  only  characteristic  of  battles  in  which  a  great  host  is 
routed  by  a  small  force,  as  at  Morgartcn  and  Morat,  Crecy  and  Poictiers,  but  it  is  a 
striking  peculiarity  of  Greek  battles,  except  in  cases  of  utter  defeat.  (See  Rawlinson's 
Herodotus,  vi.  117,  note.)  That  the  great  loss  of  the  Persians  was  in  the  marsh,  we 
learn  from  the  description  of  the  picture  in  the  Stoa  Pcecile. 


B.C.  490.]  MONUMENTS  OF  THE  VICTORY.  8^1 

of  conquest  would  have  broken  upon  Italy  at  the  moment  when 
Rome  was  weakened  by  intestine  broils ;  and  no  other  nation  of 
the  peninsula  could  have  offered  resistance.  The  Phoenician  fleet 
would  have  soon  reduced  the  Grecian  colonies,  and  have  joined  in 
a  conflict  of  deadly  rivalry  with  Carthage.  Even  had  the  western 
republic  gained  the  victory  on  the  sea,  the  jealous  oligarchy  of 
Carthage  would  have  been  scarcely  less  dangerous  to  civilization 
than  the  despotism  of  Persia.  We  shall  soon  see  that  it  was  given 
to  Greece  to  perform  the  double  work  of  repulsing  both  powers  on 
the  same  day,  in  the  bay  of  Salamis  and  on  the  field  of  Himera. 

Justly,  therefore,  did  the  Attic  orators  ever  rouse  their  fellow- 
citizens  to  emulate  "  the  men  who  adventured  themselves  in  the 
fore-front  of  danger  at  Marathon ; "  while  others  extolled  the 
ancient  discipline  that  had  trained  "  the  men  who  fought  at 
Marathon."  *  The  artists  of  the  succeeding  generation  vied  with 
one  another  in  representing  their  great  achievement  on  the 
edifices  with  which  the  city  was  adorned  under  the  brilliant  rule 
of  Pericles.  A  huge  block  of  marble,  which  Datis  was  believed  to 
have  brought  with  him  to  form  a  monument  of  his  conquest,  was 
fashioned  by  the  hand  of  Phidias  himself  into  a  colossal  statue  of 
Nemesis,  expressive  of  that  solemn  irony  in  whicli  the  Greek 
religion  delighted ;  it  was  erected  in  the  temple  of  the  goddess  at 
Rhamnus,  about  eight  miles  from  Marathon.  The  temple  dedi- 
cated in  the  Acropolis  to  Wingless  Victory,  the  goddess  who  was 
never  again  to  take  flight  from  Athens,  still  shows  on  its  broken 
frieze  "  the  figures  of  the  Persian  combatants,  with  their  lunar 
shields,  their  bows  and  quivers,  their  curved  scimetars,  their  loose 
trousers,  and  Phrygian  tiaras."  But  the  most  interesting  of  these 
monuments  was  the  Colonnade  in  the  Agora,  called  the  Stoa 
Pcecile,  or  Painted  Porch,  from  the  great  picture  of  the  battle 
painted  upon  its  walls  by  Panagnus,  the  nephew  of  Phidias  and 
Polygnotus.  A  description  of  this  great  work  has  been  handed 
down  to  us  by  the  traveller  Pausanias.  Miltiades  and  Callima- 
chus  held  the  most  conspicuous  place  of  honour  in  the  front ;  in 
the  middle  distance,  the  Athenians  and  Platseans  chased  the 
Persians  to  the  marshes  and  to  the  sea,  which  appeared  in  the 
back-ground  covered  with  the  ships.  The  tutelary  deities  of  the 
place  were  represented  as  joining  in  the  encounter  to  aid  the 
Greeks.  The  same  traveller,  who  visited  Marathon  in  the  second 
century  of  our  era,  speaks  with  full  faith  of  the  noise  of  super- 

*  The  "AvSpeg  MapaOuvd/iaxoc.    This  is  a  favourite  topic  with  Aristophanes. 


898  THE  PERSIAN  WARS.  [Chap.  XIII. 

natural  war  heard  nightly  on  the  battle-field;  and  such  is  the 
power  of  local  tradition,  that  to  the  present  day  the  clash  of 
arms,  the  shouts  of  the  combatants,  and  the  neighing  of  tlieir 
steeds,  strike  aAve  into  the  watching  shepherds.* 

A  separate  monument  was  erected  on  tlie  battle-field  to  Mil- 
tiades,  for  whom  fate  had  reserved  a  separate  doom.  The  various 
ends  of  great  warriors  are  among  the  most  affecting  episodes  of 
history: — Callimachus  and  Epaminondas,  "Wolfe  and  Nelson, 
rejoicing  to  die  in  the  arms  of  victory ;  Leonidas  and  Gustavus 
Adolphus  content  to  give  their  blood  as  an  offering  to  expiate 
defeat;  Wellington  exposing  his  life  as  a  worthless  thing  when 
the  field  of  Waterloo  was  won,  but  living  to  be  satiated  with 
honour ;  Napoleon  only  escaping  from  the  same  field,  to  "  eat  his 
heart  away"  on  his  far  distant  rock.  But  it  was  the  fate  of 
Miltiades  to  reap  all  the  glory  that  a  grateful  country  could 
bestow,  only  to  peril  all  in  a  rash  and  selfish  enterprise.  It  is  not 
the  least  of  Mr.  Grote's  services  to  Grecian  history  that  he  has  set 
the  end  of  Miltiades  in  its  true  light — the  light  derived  fi'om  the 
character  of  the  public  men  of  Greece  on  the  one  hand,  and  of 
the  Athenian  people  on  the  other.  "  There  is  no  feature, "  he 
says,  "which  more  largely  prevades  the  impressible  Greek 
character,  than  a  liability  to  be  intoxicated  and  demoralized  by 
success ;  there  was  no  fault  from  which  so  few  eminent  Greeks 
were  free ;  there  was  hardly  any  danger,  against  which  it  was  at 
once  so  necessary  and  so  difficult  for  the  Grecian  governments  to 
take  security — especially  the  democracies,  where  the  manifesta- 
tions of  enthusiasm  were  always  the  loudest.  Such  is  the  real 
explanation  of  those  charges  which  have  been  urged  against  the 
Grecian  democracies,  that  they  came  to  hate  and  ill-treat  previous 
benefactors ;  and  the  history  of  Miltiades  illustrates  it  in  a  manner 
no  less  pointed  than  painful."  f 

No  sober  student  of  Greek  history  now  questions  that,  in  the 
intoxication  of  success,  Miltiades  abused  the  confidence  of  his 
countrymen  for  his  own  objects.  How  far  those  objects  went 
is  still  only  a  matter  of  conjecture.  But  it  is  no  extravagant 
idea  that  the  former  tyrant  of  the  Chersonese  may  have  been 
eager  to  compensate  his  loss  by  another  principality,  even  if  the 
final  removal  of  Hippias  did  not  suggest  still  higher  thoughts 
Tie  asked  the  Athenians  for  an  armament  of  seventy  war  galleys, 
to  be  placed  at  his  disposal  for  a  secret  service ;  and  we  may  well 

*  Tradition,  however,  has  forgotten  that  no  cavalry  were  engaged, 
f  Grote,  History  of  Greece,  vol.  iv.  p.  504. 


B.C.  490.]  FATE  OF  MILTIADES.  399 

believe  that  tlie  people  hoped  to  see  him  return  laden  witli  wealth 
from  the  JPersian  shores,  or  having  inflicted  some  signal  blow  on 
their  great  enemy.  Miltiades  led  the  expedition  against  the  Greek 
island  of  Paros,  celebrated  for  its  beautiful  white  marble.  Like 
the  rest  of  the  Cyclades,  it  had  submitted  to  Datis  and  Arta- 
phernes ;  and  its  having  furnished  a  trireme  to  the  Persian  fleet 
was  the  pretext  used  by  Miltiades.*  The  enterprise  met  with  an 
ignominious  failure,  and  Miltiades  was  carried  back  in  his  galley 
with  a  broken  leg. 

To  explain  his  reception  at  Athens,  we  must  again  make  use  of 
the  philosophic  discrimination  of  Mr.  Grote : — "  There  were  two 
circumstances  in  the  working  of  the  Athenian  democracy,  which 
imparted  to  it  an  appearance  of  greater  fickleness  [than  that 
shown  by  an  irresponsible  one  or  few]  without  the  reality ; — ^first, 
that  the  manifestations  and  changes  of  opinion  were  all  open, 
undisguised,  and  noisy ;  the  people  gave  utterance  to  their  present 
impression,  whatever  it  was,  with  perfect  frankness;  if  their 
opinions  were  really  changed,  they  had  no  shame  or  scruple  in 
avowing  it ;  secondly,  the  present  impression,  whatever  it  might 
be,  was  not  merely  undisguised  in  its  manifestations,  but  also  had 
a  tendency  to  .be  exaggerated  in  its  intensity.  This  arose  from 
their  habit  of  treating  public  afiairs  in  multitudinous  assemblages, 
the  well-known  eifect  of  which  is  to  inflame  sentiment  in  every 
man's  bosOm  by  mere  contact  with  a  sympathising  circle  of  neigh- 
bours. Whatever  the  sentiment  might  be — fear,  ambition,  cupid- 
ity, wrath,  compassion,  piety,  or  patriotic  devotion,  and  whether 
well  founded  or  ill  founded — it  was  constantly  influenced  more  or 
less  by  such  intensifying  cause."  f 

Such  impulses  of  popular  feeling  never  want  leaders.  It  is  an 
essential  feature  of  free  popular  governments — in  none  more  con- 
spicuous than  our  own — that  the  chiefs  of  parties  are  ever  on  the 
watch  for  the  errors  of  their  rivals.  IS^or  can  the  story  of  Miltiades 
be  properly  understood,  without  considering  the  quarter  from 
which  the  attack  was  made  upon  him.  Parties  at  Athens  had  now 
resolved  themselves  into  two,  traceable  to  those  of  the  Pisistratids 
and  the  Alcmseonids.     The  old  oligarchical  party  adhered  more  or 

*  Herodotus,  who  visited  Paros  to  make  enquiries,  makes  the  true  motive  of  Mil- 
tiades an  old  grudge  against  a  Parian  citizen,  who  had  accused  him  to  the  Persian 
satrap,  Hydarnes.  It  was  at  Paros  that  Herodotus  heard  the  story  of  the  intrigue  of 
Miltiades  with  the  Parian  priestess  to  betray  the  city,  the  supernatural  terror  which 
seized  him  on  entering  the  precincts  of  the  temple,  and  his  breaking  his  leg  by  a  fall 
in  his  hasty  flight. 

f  Grote,  History  of  Greece,  vol.  iv,  pp.  505,  506 


400  THE  PERSIAN  WARS.  [Chap.  XIII. 

less  openly  to  the  former,  in  opposition  to  the  democracy  ;  the 
latter  had  thrown  themselves  into  the  arms  of  the  people. 
The  founder  of  the  democratic  constitution  was  Cleisthenes,  the 
son  of  Megacles,  the  great  opponent  of  Pisistratus.  It  was,  there- 
fore, natural  that  Miltiades,  the  former  friend  of  the  Pisistratids, 
should  find  an  accuser  in  Xanthippus,  who  had  married  into  the 
family  of  the  Alcmseonids,  and  whose  son  Pericles  afterwards 
governed  the  republic  as  the  leader  of  the  party  of  Cleisthenes. 
Kor  is  it  improbable  that  such  a  leader  would  see  in  Miltiades  the 
emulator  of  Pisistratus.  Miltiades  was  brought  to  trial  for  his  life 
before  the  j)opular  court  of  the  Ilelisea,  on  the  charge  of  deceiving 
the  people.  The  victor  of  Marathon  was  borne  into  the  court  on 
a  litter,  unable  to  stand  or  speak  in  his  own  defence.  Ilis  friends 
could  only  plead  his  unparalleled  services  in  mitigation  of  his 
crime.  His  life  was  spared — not,  it  would  seem,  without  diffi- 
culty ;  and  he  was  condemned  to  pay  a  fine  of  fifty  talents.  It 
has  been  supposed  that  this  sum  was  the  cost  of  the  expedition ; 
but  Mr.  Grote  has  pointed  out  the  probability  that  it  was  the 
penalty  assessed  by  the  friends  of  Miltiades ;  for,  in  a  public  trial 
at  Athens,  if  the  defendant  was  found  guilty,  he  was  required  to 
propose  a  penalty  as  an  alternative  to  that  named^  by  the  accuser 
in  the  indictment ;  and  the  judges  were  bound  to  pronounce  one 
of  these  sentences,  and  no  other.  It  was  obviously  for  the  defend- 
ant's interest  to  name  a  substantial  penalty;  for  otherwise  the 
court  would  feel  insulted,  and  would  at  once  vote  the  heavier 
punishment,  as  actually  occurred  in  the  case  of  Socrates.  The 
later  writers  tell  us  that  Miltiades,  being  miable  to  pay  the  fine, 
was  thrown  into  prison,  and  there  died ;  but  of  this  Herodotus 
says  nothing.  All  we  know  for  certain  is,  that  soon  after  the 
sentence,  Miltiades  died  in  consequence  of  his  wound  mortifying, 
and  that  the  fine  was  paid  by  his  son  Cimon.  The  disastrous  end 
of  the  great  victor  atoned  for  his  faults,  and  his  memory  was  held 
in  deserved  honour.  His  tomb  is  still  to  be  seen  upon  the  field 
itself;  and  the  great  picture  of  the  battle  in  the  Stoa  Poecile  at 
Athens  bore  the  inscription — 

"  Miltiades,  thy  warlike  deeds  are  to  all  Persians  known ; 
But  still  thy  valour  lasts  for  aye,  enshrined  at  Marathon." 

"While  Darius  prepared  to  avenge  his  defeat  by  a  new  expedition 
of  overwhelming  magnitude,  Athens  started  on  the  career  which 
raised  her  to  the  maritime  supremacy  of  Greece.  The  immediate 
impulse  to  this  course  was  given  by  the  fresh  outbreak  of  that 


B.C.  489.]  WAR  WITH  iEGINA.  401 

feud  with  ^giiia,  wliicli  we  have  seen  raging  just  before  the 
Persian  "War.  It  became  evident  that  Athens  could  only  put 
down  a  rivalry  which  the  position  of  ^gina  so  near  her  coast  ren- 
dered doubly  galling,*  by  becoming  a  maritime  power  of  the  first 
class.  Among  her  chief  resources  were  some  very  productive 
silver  mines  at  Laurion,  in  the  mountains  of  southern  Attica,  near 
Cape  Sunium.f  The  State  received  from  these  mines  a  superfluity 
of  wealth,  which  it  had  been  proposed  to  divide  among  the  poorer 
citizens.  At  this  crisis  Themistocles  came  forward  with  the  pro- 
position that  the  surplus  should  be  employed  in  building  200 
triremes.  Moreover  he  persuaded  the  Athenians  to  add  twenty 
ships  to  their  navy  every  year.  He  used  the  exigency  of  the 
^ginetan  war  as  an  argument  for  a  provision  which  he  saw 
would  be  soon  needed  to  meet  the  fresh  efforts  of  the  Persian 
king.  "  Thus,"  says  Herodotus,  "  the  iEginetan  war  saved 
Greece  by  compelling  the  Athenians  to  make  themselves  a  mari- 
time power."  The  war  went  on  irregularly  till  the  common 
danger  from  Xerxes  suspended  mutual  animosity,  and  the  ^gi- 
netans  fought  at  Salamis  like  the  Athenians.  It  was  not  till  b.c. 
456  that  Athens  finally  subdued  her  hated  rival. 

During  tlie  ten  years'  interval  between  the  campaigns  of  Mara- 
thon and  Salamis,  the  internal  politics  of  Athens  derive  all  their 
interest  from  the  rivalry  of  Themistocles  and  Aristides.  The 
striking  contrast  of  character  in  these  two  statesmen  belongs  to 
the  history,  not  of  their  own  country  merely,  but  of  human 
nature.  It  was  the  rivalry  of  expediency  and  justice,  of  unscru- 
pulous ability  and  high  principle,  of  a  policy  in  which  self-interest 
coincided  for  a  time  with  the  public  welfare,  and  an  unselfish 
though  mistaken  patriotism.  The  politician  who  is  unencum- 
bered by  principle  has  an  unfettered  choice  among  the  expedients 
which  he  may  have  the  genius  to  devise  ;  and  such  genius  was  the 
most  striking  characteristic  of  Themistocles.  In  a  celebrated  pas- 
sage, which  defies  translation,  Thucydides  describes  him  as  neither 
slowly  preparing  for  events  by  long  forecasting  of  probabilities, 
nor  learning  by  reflection  on  the  j)ast ;  but  as  meeting  every 
emergency  when  it  arose  with  an  unfailing  intuitive  sagacity  ;  and 
"  by  his  natural  power  most  able  to  extemporize  what  was  need- 
ful." :}:     His  native  genius  formed  the  most  striking  contrast  to 

*  The  island  of  yEgina  lies  in  the  middle  of  the  Saronic  Gulf,  between  Attica  and 
Argohs. 

f  A  full  account  of  these  mines,  and  of  the  revenue  derived  from  them,  is  given  in 
Bockh's  Public  Economy  of  Athens.  \  Thucyd.  i.  138. 

VOL.  I.— 26 


402  THE  PERSIAN  WARS.  [Chap.  XIII. 

the  elaborate  training  wliicli  tlie  statesmen  of  the  next  generation, 
like  Pericles,  received  from  philosophers  and  rhetoricians.  The 
first  appearance  of  Themistocles  in  history  agrees  with  this  view  of 
his  character.  Having  been  just  mentioned  at  Marathon,  he  is 
seen  immediately  afterwards  devising  and  carrying  through  that 
policy  which  alone  could  save  Greece  from  the  Persian,  and  raise 
his  own  state  to  the  supremacy. 

Of  this  policy  the  chief  opponent  was  Aristides,  whom  we  have 
seen  acting  as  a  general  at  Marathon,  and  who  was  archon  for 
the  following  year  (b.c.  489-8).  Far  less  ready  in  invention,  and 
slower  to  perceive  the  changes  passing  round  him,  he  could  not 
see  that  any  innovation  was  needed  on  the  old  policy  of  training 
the  citizens  as  heavy-armed  soldiers,  and  trusting  them  to  meet 
an  invader  who  dared  to  set  foot  on  their  soil,  as  they  had  met  him 
at  Marathon.  Aristides  probably  looked  forAvard  with  distrust 
to  those  consequences  which  we  shall  soon  see  that  a  maritime 
policy  involved — the  grasping  at  extensive  empire  abroad,  and  the 
decay  of  a  military  spirit  at  home.  It  must  not,  however,  be  sup- 
posed that  Aristides  belonged  to  the  reactionary  or  oligarchical 
party.  He  had  been  the  friend  of  Cleisthenes,  on  whose  reformed 
constitution  he  took  his  stand,  firmly  resisting  the  innovations 
of  a  younger  generation.  As  the  counsels  of  his  rival  prevailed, 
Thucydides  has  not  given  us  a  sketch  of  Aristides,  which  we 
should  have  valued  as  a  parallel  to  that  of  Themistocles.  But 
the  master's  hand  was  hardly  so  much  needed  to  trace  the  out- 
lines of  a  character  whose  great  feature  was  that  simplicity  of 
integrity  which  called  forth  the  eulogies  of  Herodotus  and  Plato, 
and  which  is  depicted  in  the  sketches  of  Plutarch  and  other  late 
writers.  The  surname  of  "  the  Just "  at  once  expressed  the 
esteem  in  which  he  was  held  at  Athens,  and  roused  not  only  the 
hostility  of  the  rogues  who  felt  his  justice,  but  the  jealousy  and 
dislike  with  which  common-place  minds  always  regard  superior 
merit.  The  story  is  true  to  nature  that,  when  the  vote  of  ostracism 
was  being  taken,  an  unlettered  citizen,  not  knowing  Aristides, 
asked  him  to  write  for  him  on  the  shell.  "  And  what  name  shall 
I  write  ? "  "  Aristides."  "  And  pray  what  wrong  has  Aristides 
done  you  ? "  "  Oh,  none ;  but  I  am  tired  of  hearing  him  always 
called  the  Just."  Aristides  made  no  reply,  but  wrote  the  name. 
His  own  disgust  for  the  party  conflict  in  which  he  was  involved 
with  Themistocles  was  expressed  by  the  saying  that,  if  the  Athe- 
nians were  wise,  they  would  throw  them  both  into  the  Barathrum. 
The  ostracism  of  Aristides  took  place  in  b.c.  483  or  482 ;    and 


B.C.  485.]  ACCESSION"  OF  XERXES.  403 

lie  was  only  recalled  from  his  exile  in  J^gina  when  the  battle  of 
Salamis  was  at  hand.  Thus  far  the  career  of  the  two  leaders  might 
seem  to  be  an  exception  to  the  proverb — that  "  honesty  is  the  best 
policy ;  "  but  their  subsequent  fortunes  illustrate  the  sounder  form 
of  the  same  proverb — "  Honesty  lasts  longest."  The  history  of  the 
other  Greek  states  is  a  blank  for  the  interval  of  ten  years  between 
the  two  great  acts  of  the  Persian  wars. 

It  is  time  to  ask  why  so  long  a  respite  was  allowed  to  the 
Greeks.  Darius,  indignant  at  a  second  failure,  had  resolved  to 
lead  the  whole  force  of  his  empire  in  person  against  Greece.  His 
vast  preparations  occupied  three  years,  and  were  just  completed 
when  the  revolt  of  Egypt  claimed  his  first  attention  (b.c.  486), 
and  in  the  following  year  he  died  (b.c.  485).  Egypt  was  subdued 
by  the  generals  of  Xerxes  in  the  second  year  of  his  reign  ;  and  the 
young  king  was  at  liberty  to  cajpy  out  his  father's  designs.  But 
the  change  in  the  ruler  of  Persia  had  made  a  vast  difference  in  the 
prospects  of  Greece.  Xerxes,  the  eldest  son  of  Darius  by  his 
second  wife,  Atossa,  had  obtained  his  designation  to  the  crown 
during  his  father's  lifetime,  in  preference  to  his  elder  half-brothers. 
In  personal  beauty  and  stately  bearing,  he  was  the  fairest  among 
the  many  myriads  he  gathered  for  the  expedition  against  Greece ; 
but  in  all  else  he  proved  how  a  noble  race  might  be  corrupted  in 
one  generation  by  the  training  of  the  seraglio.  Vain  and  fickle, 
blinded  by  conceit  and  passion,  and  jealous  of  good  advice,  he  was 
such  a  leader  as  the  Greeks  might  have  desired  to  be  set  over 
their  enemies.  Nor  did  he  show  at  first  any  zeal  for  the  enter- 
prise ;  but  his  cousin,  Mardonius,  eager  to  gratify  his  own  ambi- 
tion and  to  wipe  out  his  former  disgrace,  tempted  him  with  tlie 
conquest  of  Europe,  which  he  represented  as  no  less  fertile  than 
Asia.  The  family  of  the  Aleuads  came  from  Thessaly  to  Susa  to 
invite  him  to  march  against  Greece.  The  Pisistratids  produced  a 
seer  named  Onomacritus,  to  stimulate  him  with  garbled  prophe- 
cies, which  told  of  the  bridging  of  the  Hellespont  and  the  march 
of  a  Persian  host  to  conquer  Greece ;  while  all  the  ancient  predic- 
tions of  disaster  were  studiously  kept  back. 

As  soon  as  the  Eg}q)tian  rebellion  was  suppressed,  Xerxes  sum- 
moned the  great  council  of  the  empire,  and  announced  his  plans. 
The  occasion  is  seized  by  Herodotus  to  put  the  arguments  for  and 
against  the  enterprise  into  the  mouths  of  Mardonius,  the  king's 
cousin,  and  Artabanus,  his  uncle,  as  the  representatives  of  his  evil 
and  good  genius.  The  latter  prevailed  for  the  time,  but  repeated 
di'eams  forced  Xerxes  on,  and  compelled  Artabanus  to  withdraw 


404  THE  PERSIAX  WARS.  [Chap.  XIII. 

his  opposition.  Tims  tlie  events  tliat  followed  were  seen  to  be  by 
the  appointment  of  tlie  gods,  to  chastise  the  ovenveening  pros- 
perity and  arrogance  of  the  Persian  power.*  It  was  not  enough 
for  Xerxes  to  collect  an  armament  sufficient  for  the  conquest  of 
Greece ;  lie  resolved  to  overwhelm  Europe  with  a  force  such  as 
the  world  had  never  seen  gathered  together.  Edicts  went  forth 
from  Susa,  commanding  the  satraps  to  muster  all  their  troops, 
and  to  provide  supplies  of  every  kind  in  vast  abundance.  "  The 
whole  of  Asia,"  says  the  historian,  "  rang  with  the  din  of  arms," 
and  the  prophecy  of  Daniel  concerning  the  fourth  king  of  Persia 
was  fulfilled : — "  By  his  strength  through  his  riches  he  shall  stir 
up  all  against  the  realm  of  Grecia."  f  It  is  for  the  poet,  rather 
than  the  historian,  to  attempt  a  vivid  description  of  the  dress  and 
accoutrements,  the  aspects  and  manners,  of  the  myriads  who 
flocked  together,  from  the  banks  of  the  Indus  to  the  confines  of 
Thessaly,  from  the  deserts  of  Scythia  to  the  sands  of  Libya,  to  the 
appointed  rendezvous  at  Critala  in  Cappadocia. 

In  the  autumn  of  b.c.  481,  Xerxes  an*ived  from  Susa,  and  led 
his  mighty  host  to  Sardis,  there  to  spend  the  winter,  while  other 
preparations  Avere  making  for  his  march  to  Europe.  His  plan  of 
campaign  resembled,  not  that  of  Datis  and  Artaphernes,  but  that 
of  Mardonius,  only  on  an  immense  scale.  It  would  have  been 
impossible  to  transport  so  vast  a  host  across  the  ^gsean ;  and  as 
Thrace  and  Macedonia,  as  well  as  the  islands,  now  belonged  to 
Xerxes,  the  whole  march  lay  through  his  own  territory.  Magazines 
of  provisions  were  prepared  at  stations  along  the  whole  coast 
from  the  Hellespont  to  the  Strymonic  Gulf.  A  fleet  of  1207  ships 
w^as  collected  in  the  ports  of  Phoenicia,  Caria,  Ionia,  the  Helles- 
pont, and  Thrace. 

Meanwhile  two  gigantic  engineering  works  were  undertaken,  in 
order  to  facilitate  the  march,  the  bridging  of  the  Hellespont,  and 
the  cutting  of  a  channel  through  the  peninsula  of  Mount  Athos. 
It  is  needless  to  relate  the  oft-told  story  of  the  former  undertaking 
— ^liow  the  first  bridge  of  boats  was  scattered  by  a  storm  ;  how  the 
blind  fury  of  the  despot  scourged  the  Hellespont,  and  afiected  to 
chain  it  with  the  fettei-s  which  its  waves  swallowed  up ;  X  and  how 

*  See  the  admirable  remarks  of  Mr.  Grotc  on  this  religious  conception  of  history, 
common  both  to  Greeks  and  Persians,  and  perpetually  colouring  the  narrative  of 
Herodotus.     History  of  Greece,  chap,  xxxviii.,  beginning. 

f  Daniel  xi.  2.  The  conquest  of  Persia  by  Alexander  is  represented  in  this  proph- 
ecy as  the  sequel  to  the  expedition  of  Xerxes;  and  such  it  was,  morally  and  poli- 
ti';ally,  in  spite  of  the  interval  of  150  years. 

\  None  can  fail  to  mark  the  contrast  to  the  pious  modesty  of  Canute. 


B.C.  480.]  STARTING   OF   THE    EXPEDITION".  405 

the  engineers,  taught  by  the  decapitation  of  their  predecessors, 
linked  the  European  and  Asiatic  shores  by  two  broad  causeways 
resting  on  ships,  one  for  the  sokliers  and  the  otlier  for  the 
baggage.  The  ship  canal  through  Mount  Athos  was  intended  to 
guard  against  such  risks  as  had  befallen  the  fleet  of  Mardonius  in 
doubling  its  stormy  cape.  But  Herodotus  observes  that  it  was  a 
work  as  much  of  ostentation  as  utility,  for  it  would  have  been 
easier  to  have  drawn  the  ships  across  the  isthmus.*  This  may 
account  for  the  fact  that  the  canal  was  not  kept  in  repair ;  while 
the  convenience  of  land  travellers  caused  a  space  of  about  200 
yards  in  the  centre  to  be  filled  up,  as  is  seen  from  its  present 
state.  It  scarcely  needed  the  accurate  observations  of  modern 
travellers  to  confirm  the  testimony  of  Herodotus  and  Thucydides 
to  the  execution  of  the  work;  and  modern  distrust  of  historic 
evidence  is  perhaps  less  excusable  than  the  incredulous  prejudice 
of  the  Koman  satirist : — 

"  Creditur  olim 
Veliiicatus  Athos,  et  quidquid  Graecia  mendax 
Audet  in  historia,"f 

The  sight  of  the  soldiers  of  Xerxes  labouring  under  the  lash  gave 
the  Greeks  a  keen  foretaste  of  what  they  might  expect  from  the 
Persian  yoke. 

Xerxes  set  out  from  Sardis,  in  the  spring  of  b.c.  480,  with 
the  combined  pomp  of  a  royal  progress  and  of  an  anticipated 
triumph.  The  beasts  of  burthen  and  the  baggage  led  the  way. 
The  army  was  divided  into  two  columns ;  and  between  them  rode 
the  monarch  in  his  chariot,  preceded  by  the  sacred  chariot  of 
Auramazda,:j:  and  surrounded  by  his  chosen  body-guard  of  horse 
and  foot,  and  the  10,000  infantry  called  the  "  Immortals." 
Herodotus  indicates  the  pell-mell  confusion  in  which  the  rear 
division  followed.  This  part  of  the  force  at  least  must  have  been 
a  mob,  rather  than  an  army,  good  for  nothing  but  to  plunder  in 

*  The  implied  testimony  of  Herodotus  to  the  common  practice  of  those  times  is 
important ;  but  we  may  be  allowed  to  doubt  whether  he  was  not  thinking  rather  of 
the  light  triremes  than  the  ponderous  etoreships  and  transports.  The  width  of  the 
isthmus  is  2500  yards,  and  its  surface  is  nowhere  higher  than  15  feet  above  the  sea ; 
while,  both  towards  the  continent  and  the  peninsula,  the  hills  rise  abruptly  to  800 
or  1000  feet  The  width  of  the  canal  seems  to  have  been  18  or  20  feet.  The  soil  is  a 
light  clay.  An  interesting  contribution  is  made  by  Herodotus  to  the  history  of  engi- 
neering, when  he  tells  us  that  the  Phoenicians,  alone  of  all  the  nations  that  laboured 
on  the  work,  had  the  skill  to  commence  on  a  scale  wider  than  the  intended  breadth,  so 
that  the  sides  should  not  fall  in  as  they  dug  down. 

•|-  Juvenal,  Sat.  x.  174. 

\  Herodotus,  as  on  other  occasions,  says  Jove. 


406  THE  PERSIAN  WARS.  [Cuap.  XIII. 

tlie  M-ake  of  tlie  main  body.  Tlie  wliip  was  freely  used  to  get 
them  across  the  bridges  of  tlie  Hellespont,  the  passage  of  which 
occupied  seven  days  and  nights  without  cessation.  As  Xerxes 
overlooked  the  scene  from  a  marble  throne,  he  is  said  to  have 
wept  at  the  thought  that,  in  a  hundred  yeai-s,  not  one  man  of  all 
these  myriads  would  survive.  He  little  thought  how  much 
shorter  was  the  term  within  which  this  vast  instrument  of  his 
power  was  to  be  l)roken  in  his  hands.  Many  are  the  picturesque 
incidents  of  the  setting-forth  of  the  expedition,  mingled  with 
omens  of  its  fate,  for  which  we  must  be  content  to  refer  to  the 
graphic;  pages  of  Herodotus. 

The  river  Hebrus,  which  drains  the  great  inland  basin  of  Thrace 
between  the  chains  of  Ilsemus  and  Rhodope,  forms  at  its  mouth  a 
vast  plain,  which  was  named  after  the  town  of  Doriscus.  Here 
Xerxes,  having  been  joined  by  his  fleet,  held  a  review  of  the  whole 
armament,  which,  like  the  miser's  money  in  the  proverb,  had  to  be 
measured  in  order  to  count  it.  The  space  in  which  10,000  men 
could  stand,  when  closely  packed,  was  made  the  measure  of  the 
whole  multitude.  The  result,  according  to  Herodotus,  presented 
the  astounding  numbers  of  1,700,000  infantry,  80,000  cavalry,  and 
20,000  men  who  went  with  the  camels  and  war-chariots.  The 
1207  triremes  had  each  a  crew  of  200  rowers,  and  30  fighting- 
men,  and  there  were  3000  smaller  vessels,  the  crews  of  which 
averaged  eighty  a-j^iece,  making  a  total  of  517,610  men  on  board 
the  ships.  The  combined  force  which  Xerxes  led  from  Asia  is 
thus  estimated  at  2,317,610  men ;  and  the  subject  countries  of 
Thrace,  Macedonia,  and  Thessaly  added  300,000  men,  and  120 
triremes,  manned  by  24,000  sailors,  making  an  aggregate  of 
2,641,010.  These,  Herodotus  expressly  tells  us,  were  the  fighting 
men ;  and  he  calculates  the  slaves,  attendants,  and  hangers-on  at 
a  still  greater  number,  so  that  the  whole  host  would  not  fall  far 
short  of  FIVE  MILLIONS  AND  A  HALF  !  We  kuow  uot  what  results 
might  follow  from  applying  to  these  numbers  the  method  of 
curious  arithmetical  criticism.  On  the  one  hand,  "\ve  may  be  sure 
that  Herodotus  wrote  from  the  best  information  he  could  obtain  ; 
he  proves  that  great  pains  were  taken  to  ascertain  the  numbers  ;* 
and  they  agree  tolerably  well  with  the  time  said  to  have  been 
occujjied  in  passing  the  Hellespont :  on  the  other,  one  cannot 
doubt  that  the  numbers  were  exaggerated  to  gratify  the  vanity  of 
Xerxes ;  and  the  difficulty  of  feeding  such  a  host  is  sufficient  to 

*  The  Persian  royal  scribes  attended  the  king  to  note  all  the  memorable  incidents 
of  the  campaign. 


B.C.  480.J  DISTRUST  AND  DIVISION  IN  GREECE,  40-/ 

discredit  the  calculation.  Still,  tlie  immence  preparations  rnjadc 
to  meet  this  very  difHcultj  confinn  tlie  general  conchision,  tliat 
the  army  of  Xerxes  was  probably  the  greatest  ever  set  in  motion 
in  ancient  or  modern  times.  Again  and  again  are  we  told  that  it 
comprised  the  whole  force  of  the  empire,  which  ^schylus  repre- 
sents as  drained  of  men  by  its  destruction.*  Calculated  as  these 
vast  numbers  were  to  inspire  a  vague  terror,  they  quite  ovei-passed 
the  limit  of  military  efficiency.  The  ostentation  of  Xerxes  had 
gone  far  to  secure  his  defeat ;  and  Demaratus,  the  exiled  king  of 
Lacedaemon,  is  said  to  have  warned  him,  on  the  very  field  of 
Doriscus,  that  the  Spartans  at  least  would  not  submit  without  a 
deadly  struggle. 

While  this  deluge  of"  barbarian  power  rolls  round  the  shores 
of  the  JEgsean,  where  the  Greek  cities  were  ruined  in  preparing 
meals  for  Xerxes  and  his  retinue,  let  lis  turn  to  see  how  his 
approach  was-  regarded  by  the  Greeks.  We  can  only  notice  the 
events  directly  connected  with  the  invasion ;  many  interesting 
points  relating  to  the  internal  history  of  the  several  states, 
such  as  the  madness  and  death  of  Cleomenes,  king  of  Sparta, 
must  be  left  to  the  historians  of  Greece.  While  Xerxes  wintered 
at  Sardis,  he  sent  heralds  through  the  Greek  states  to  demand 
earth  and  water.  The  significant  exception  of  Sparta  as  well  as 
Athens  proved  the  wide  scope  of  the  expedition,  and  united  both 
the  leading  states  in  concerting  measures  of  defence.  They  sum- 
moned a  congress  at  the  isthmus  of  Corinth,  the  first  great  Pan- 
hellenic  union  since  the  Trojan  War ;  though  the  prevailing  fear 
of  Persia  kept  many  of  the  states  away.  It  began  its  work  in  a 
truly  national  spirit,  by  reconciling  the  Grecian  states  that  were 
at  variance,  Athens  and  -^gina  in  particular.  Envoys  were  next 
sent  to  the  cities  which  still  stood  aloof,  and  which  were  so 
numerous  as  to  indicate  a  deep  and  general  discouragement. 
This  feeling  was  increased  by  the  return  of  the  spies  who  had  been 
sent  to  Sardis,  and  whom  Xerxes  dismissed,  after  showing  them 
the  full  magnitude  of  his  armaments.  The  envoys  sent  to  the 
great  maritime  states  brought  back  disheartening  replies,  Crete 
sheltered  her  neutrality  under  an  oracle,  Corcyi'a  promised  a 
fleet  of  sixty  vessels,  but  kept  them  cruising  on  the  western  coast 
of  Peloponnesus,  to  await  the  issue  of  the  first  conflict,  Gelo, 
the  tyrant  of  Syracuse,  now  probably  the  most  powerful  Hellenic 
state,  is  said  to  have  claimed  the  supreme  command,  a  condition 

*  Mr,  Grote  has   discussed   the  whole   question  with  his  usual  exhaustive  ability. 
{History  of  Greece,  chap,  xxxviii.) 


408  THE  PERSIAN  WARS.  [Chap.  XIII 

wliicli  neither  Athens  nor  Sparta  had  tlie  folly  to  admit.  In  fact 
he  had  upon  his  own  hands  a  war  only  second  to  the  Persian  in 
danger  to  the  common  interests  of  Greece.*  In  the  heart  of 
Peloponnesus,  the  Argives  could  not  bring  themselves  to  imitate 
the  patriotic  submission  of  Athens  to  the  leadership  of  Sparta : 
they  were  even  suspected  of  a  secret  understanding  with  Persia. 
Nearly  all  ISTorthern  Greece,  except  Athens  and  Phocis,  abandoned 
the  connnon  cause.  Thebes  only  waited  the  approach  of  Xerxes 
to  submit,  and  she  was  followed  by  all  the  cities  of  Boeotia,  except 
Thespiae,  and  Platosa,  faithful  as  ever  to  the  Athenian  alliance. 
Even  the  Delphic  oracle  prophesied  terrible  calamities  to  the 
Athenians,  and  bade  them  fly  far  from  their  devoted  land  and 
city.  Dreading  to  carry  back  such  an  answer,  the  envoys  placed 
themselves  as  supjdiant's  before  the  god,  and  it  was  then  that  they 
received  the  celebrated  response,  which  taught  them  to  look  for 
safety  in  their  loooden  icalls,  and  named  Sala^hs  as  the  destined 
scene  of  a  great  slaughter.  The  following  literal  translation 
preserves  something  of  the  ruggedness  of  the  original  verses : — 

"  Pallas  can  not  th'  OljTupian  Jove  appease 
With  oft-repeated  prayers  and  crafty  wiles  ; 
But  hear  thou  yet  this  word,  as  firm  as  adamant : — 
"When  all  is  lost  that  lies  within  the  bounds 
Of  Cecrops  and  divine  Citha?ron's  caves, 
Wide-seeing  Jove  still  grants  the  Triton-born  f 
The  wooden  wall  to  save  thee  and  thy  sons. 
Abide  not  then  the  cavalry  and  hosts 
Of  foot,  advancmg  from  the  continent ; 
But  turn  thy  back,  and  live  to  fight  again. 
Thou  too,  0  Salamls  divine,  the  sons 
Of  women  shalt  destroy,  when  Ceres'  corn 
Is  cast  abroad,  or  gathered  from  the  ground.:]: 

Strange  as  the  prophecy  sounds  after  the  event,  the  statements 
of  Herodotus  leave  no  doubt  that  it  was  actually  delivered,  and 
that  it  was  warmly  discussed  at  Athens;  in  tact,  every  great 
public  event  was  heralded  by  predictions  which  passed  from  mouth 
to  mouth,  as  Thucydides  expressly  tells  us  in  the  case  of  the 
Peloponnesian  war ;  nor  were  the  professional  expositors  of  proph- 
ecy silent  at  such  times.  They  were  puzzled  to  interpret  the 
wooden  wall — some  contending  for  the  palisade  which  had  of  old 
fenced  the  Acropolis ;  but  most  hit  the  mark  designed  by  those 
who  doubtless  procured  the  oracle,  and  whose  policy  had  provided 

*See  below,  p.  401. 

f  An  epithet  of  Athena. 

\  That  is,  either  in  the  spring  or  the  autumn. 


B.C.  480.]  THE  POSITION  OF  TEMPE.  409 

the  very  wooden  walls  whicli  were  now  pointed  out  as  a  refuge.* 
But  the  prophets  proposed  to  use  the  ships  for  flight  rather  than 
resistance,  urging  that  the  oracle  pointed  to  Salamis  as  the  scene 
of  a  great  disaster.  "  Yes  !  "  rejoined  Themistocles,  "  a  slaughter 
of  the  enemies  of  Greece,  for  which  Salamis  shall  ever  bear  the 
epithet  given  to  it  in  the  oracle — the  dimneP  In  short,  this 
master  of  statecraft  persuaded  the  Athenians,  by  his  artifice  and 
his  eloquence,  to  the  most  momentous  decision  ever  adopted,  at 
the  jDrice  of  the  greatest  sacrifice  ever  made  by  a  nation.  They 
resolved  that,  on  the  approach  of  the  invader,  they  would  abandon 
their  lands  and  villages,  and  the  very  city  of  Athena,  and  embark 
as  an  entire  people,  not  to  seek  a  distant  home,  like  the  Phocseans, 
but,  having  deposited  their  wives  and  children  in  Salamis,  they 
would  abide  the  enemy  between  the  land  that  they  had  lost  and 
the  island  that  contained  all  they  had  still  left,  to  conquer  if  they 
could,  or  to  perish  if  they  must.  Their  resolution  saved  the  liber- 
ties of  Greece  and  of  the  West. 

But  IS^orthern  Greece  was  not  to  be  abandoned  without  a 
struggle ;  and  pressing  circumstances  called  on  the  Congress  to 
make  an  effort  for  its  defence.  The  Thessalians,  well  knowing 
that  the  success  of  Xerxes  would  rivet  the  yoke  of  the  Aleuads 
on  their  necks,  proposed  that  a  stand  should  be  made  in  the  pass 
of  Tempe,  the  great  gorge  through  which  the  Peneius  escapes  at 
the  north-east  corner  of  the  plain  of  Thessaly.  For  a  distance  of 
about  four  miles  and  a  half,  the  foot-hills  of  Olympus  on  the  one 
side  and  the  precipices  of  Ossa  on  the  other  enclose  a  defile  not  so 
wide  in  some  parts  as  a  hundred  yards,  the  savage  grandeur  of 
which  is  well  described  by  its  modern  name  of  Lycostomo,  the 
Wolffs  Mouth.  The  road  made  by  the  Romans  is  in  one  place 
pent  up  to  a  width  of  thirteen  feet ;  but  in  the  time  of  Xerxes  no 

*  The  reader  will  have  seen  before  now  that  we  reject  the  theory  which  attributes 
to  the  oracles  any  supernatural  knowledge,  from  whatever, source  derived.  Without 
entering  into  the  full  argument,  it  is  enough  to  say,  first,  that  the  facts  on  which 
such  a  theory  is  based  are  either  insufficiently  made  out,  or  capable  of  explanation  by 
collusion  or  otherwise ;  and,  secondly,  that  the  studied  ambiguity  of  the  responses  is 
a  confession  of  ignorance.  It  is  a  common  error  to  suppose  that  an  imposture  can 
only  be  unmasked  by  explaining  every  case  of  its  exercise ;  but  this  is  superfluous,  if 
the  credit  of  the  pretender  is  broken  down  by  a  few  decisive  tests.  In  the  case  before 
us,  however,  there  can  be  but  fittle  difficulty  in  tracing  the  response  to  the  inspira- 
tion of  Themistocles,  whose  plan  of  campaign  may  from  the  first  have  marked  the 
bay  of  Salamis  as  the  scene  of  the  decisive  naval  combat.  Whether  the  first  part  of 
the  response  was  designed  to  frighten  the  Athenians  into  obedience,  or  whether  the 
oracle  had  to  earn,  by  a  double  answer,  wages  received  from  both  parties,  is  of  com- 
paratively little  importance. 


410  THE  PERSIAN  WARS.  [Chap.  XIII. 

siieli  aid  subdued  tlie  difficulties  of  the  pass ;  and  a  few  determined 
men  miglit  have  kept  a  host  at  bay.  The  Congress  sent  10,000 
men,  the  bulk  of  their  disposable  force,  to  hold  the  pass ;  but  it 
was  found  that  Xerxes  could  land  an  army  in  the  rear ;  and  they 
were  informed  by  Alexander,  king  of  Macedonia,  of  another  jjass 
over  the  range  of  Olympus,  by  which  the  position  could  be  turned. 
This  latter  was  the  very  route  by  which  Alexander  afterwards 
guided  Xerxes  into  Thessaly ;  and  the  Greeks  probably  understood 
the  professedly  friendly  warning  as  a  hint  of  his  intention.  They 
gave  up  the  defence  of  Tempe,  and  returned  by  sea  to  the  isthnnis 
about  the  time  that  Xerxes  crossed  the  Hellespont. 

The  retreat  from  Tempe  sealed  the  defection  of  the  nortliem 
states,  some  of  which  had  already  made  their  submission.  All 
Thessaly  was  at  once*lost ;  and,  as  the  occupation  of  Therm opylae 
was  not  yet  suggested,  the  line  of  defence  seemed  thrown  back  to 
Mount  Cithseron,  which  fonns  a  sort  of  outwork,  covering  the 
isthmus  of  Corinth.  All  the  states  north  of  that  boundary,  except 
Phocis  and  the  two  Boeotian  cities  of  Thespise  and  Platsea,  sent 
in  their  submission  to  Xerxes  on  his  arrival  at  the  Gulf  of  Therma. 
They  were  compelled  to  send  contingents  to  swell  his  force ;  and 
the  Thessalians  especially,  given  back  to  the  Aleuads,  and  indig- 
nant at  being  deserted,  were  zealous  in  the  cause  of  Persia. 

This  defection  did  but  stimulate  Athens  and  Sparta,  with  the 
few  faithful  allies  in  Peloponnesus,  to  more  concentrated  efforts. 
Their  unconquerable  spirit  was  expressed  by  a  solemn  engagement 
to  punish  the  seceders  in  due  time,  and  by  a  resolution  not  even 
yet  to  let  go  their  hold  upon  the  north.  To  understand  the  ever 
memorable  campaign  that  followed,  we  must  bear  in  mind  the 
mode  of  progress  necessarily  adopted  by  Xerxes.  His  army  and 
fleet,  so  to  speak,  leant  upon  each  other.  It  was  alike  essential 
for  his  march  to  keep  near  the  coast  and  for  the  fleet  to  hug  the 
shore  as  they  advanced  southwards  from  the  Gulf  of  Therma. 
ITature  has  provided  a  spot  singularly  fitted  for  a  stand  against  a 
combined  annament  advancing  in  this  manner.  South  of  Thessaly 
the  eastern  half  of  Greece  is  deeply  indented  by  a  hollow  which 
runs  far  inland  between  the  chains  of  Othrys  on  the  north  and 
(Eta  on  the  south.  The  upper  part  of  this  hollow  fonns  the  valley 
of  the  Spercheius :  its  lower  part  the  Maliac  Gulf,  in  the  mouth 
of  which  the  northern  end  of  Euboea  lies  like  a  wedge.  Un- 
less the  fleet  were  to  separate  from  the  army,  by  passing  out- 
side of  Euboea,  it  must  enter  the  Maliac  Gulf  through  the  strait 
between  Thessaly  and  Euboea,  which  is  less  than  five  miles  wide. 


B  C.  480.] 


GREEK  PLAN  OF  CAMPAIGN. 


411 


The  course  of  the  army  round  the  Maliac  Gulf  and  down  the  coast 
of  Locris  lay  through  the  pass  of  Thermopyl^  (the  Gate  of  the  Hot 
Springs),  often  called  simply  Pylce  (the  Gates),  between  Mount 
(Eta  and  an  impassable  morass,  which  the  small  rivers  running  down 
its  sides  formed  on  the  sea-shore.  A  glance  at  the  map  will  show 
the  nature  of  the  position  better  than  whole  pages  of  descriptiom. 


MAP  OF  THERMOPYL^  AND  THE  SURROUNDING  COUNTRY. 


AA.  Alluvial  deposits. 
aa.  Present  line  of  coast. 
hh.  Present  course  of  the  Spercheius. 
cc.  Ancient  line  of  coast. 
dd.  Present  course  of  the  Dyras. 
ee.  Present  course  of  the  Asopus. 


ff.  Track  of  the  Persians  under  Hydames. 
g.  Hot  springs  at  the  western  entrance, 

or  the  false  Thermopylae. 
h.  Hot  springs  at  the  eastern  entrance,  or 

the  real  Therniopylse. 
i.  Phocian  wall. 


The  Congress  resolved  to  avail  themselves  of  this  double  position 
of  defence  both  by  sea  and  land.  Their  whole  fleet  was  despatched, 
under  the  Spartan  Eurybiades,  to  the  roadstead  of  Artemisium,  on 
the  north  coast  of  Euboea.  But,  as  on  the  eve  of  Marathon,  a  re- 
ligious scruple  interfered  with  the  defence  of  Thermopylae.  The 
Olympic  games  and  the  great  Dorian  festival  of  the  Carneia  were 
both  close  at  hand,  and  the  latter  imposed  an  obligation  to  abstain 
from  offensive  military  operations.  It  was  hoped  that  the  strength 
of  the  pass  would  enable  a  small  force  to  keep  the  Persians  at  bay 
till  the  festivals  were  over ;  and  so  Leonidas,  who  had  succeeded 
his  brother  Cleomenes  as  King  of  Sparta,  was  sent  with  300  Spar- 
tans, 2120  Arcadians,  400  Corinthians,  200  men  from  Philus,  and 
80  from  Mycense — in  all,  3100  Peloponnesian  hoplites,  besides 
Helots  and  other  light  troops.     On  the  march  through  Boeotia, 


412  THE  PERSIAN  WARS.  [Chap.  XIII. 

Thespise  sent  them  an  addition  of  TOO  heavy-armed  men  ;  and 
even  Thebes,  thougli  on  the  point  of  submitting  to  Xerxes,  fur- 
nished 400  men  to  tlie  requisition  of  Leonidas,  The  Atlienians 
had  put  their  wliole  force  on  board  their  ships,  and  the  PLata?ans 
served  with  them,  tliough  till  now  ignorant  of  the  sea.  On  his 
arrival  at  Thermopylae,  Leonidas  summoned  to  his  aid  the  Phoeians 
and  the  Opuntian  Locrians.  The  former  sent  him  a  force  of  1000 
men ;  the  latter,  afraid  to  disobey,  or  desiring  to  wi2:>e  out  the 
disgrace  of  having  sent  earth  and  water  to  Xerxes,  joined  Leonidas 
with  their  whole  force."^' 

It  was  about  midsummer  b.c.  480,  and  when  Xerxes  had 
reached  Therma,  that  the  Greek  fleet  and  army  set  out  for  their 
allotted  posts.  The  position  taken  up  by  Leonidas  was  in  the 
middle  of  the  pass,  where  two  openings,  each  so  narrow  as  scarcely 
to  leave  room  for  a  single  carriage,  were  separated  by  a  wider 
space  of  about  a  mile  in  length. f  The  eastern  or  hindmost  of 
these  openings  was  the  true  Thermopylae.  Here  the  Phoeians  had 
formerly  built  a  wall,  besides  taking  other  means  to  increase  the 
difficulty  of  the  pass,  in  order  to  keep  off  the  inroads  of  the  Thes- 
salians.  Leonidas  repaired  this  wall,  and  took  up  his  station 
behind  it,  having  in  his  front,  first,  the  broken  ground  of  the  pass, 
and  then  the  little  plain,  shut  in  at  the  western  end  by  the  second 
or  "  false  "  Thermopylae.  This  western  pass  does  not  appear  to 
have  been  occupied  by  Leonidas,  but  it  served  to  coop  up  the 
van  of  the  antagonists  within  a  space  far  too  narrow  to  allow 
support  from  their  main  army.  Thus  far  the  pass  was  absolutely 
impregnable,  when  held  by  such  men  as  the  Spartans  and  their 
allies,  unless  the  Persian  fleet  should  enter  the  Euboic  sea,  and 
land  an  army  in  the  rear,  or  means  should  be  found  of  turning 
the  position  on  the  land  side  ;  and  the  Peloponnesians  might  keep 
their  festivals,  as  the  Constantinopolitans  long  afterwards  wrangled 
over  their  texts,  with  all  Asia  thundering  at  their  gates.  Un- 
happily, if  we  may  use  such  a  word  where  the  issue  was  so  glorious, 
a  wild  path  led  up  from  Trachis,  where  Xerxes  presently  pitched 
his  camp,  over  the  wooded  crest  of  (Eta,  descending  to  the  Locrian 
town  of  Alpeni,  in  the  rear  of  Thermopylae.  This  path  was  un- 
known to  Leonidas  until  his  arrival ;  and  now  he  had  cause  bitterly 
to  regret  the  scruples  which  made  his  strength  so  small.     Another 

*  It  was  even  said  that  the  Locrians  had  promised  to  seize  the  pass  for  Xerxes,  but 
their  design  was  anticipated  by  the  advance  of  Leonidas. 

f  The  past  tense  is  used  strictly,  on  account  of  the  great  alterations  since  caused 
by  the  Spercheius. 


B.C.  480.]  PEOOEEDINGS  OF  THE  FLEET.  413 

such  army  might  have  made  the  mountain  path  as  safe  as  the 
gates  themselves.  "What,  then,  if  the  8000  citizens  of  Sparta  had 
been  with  him  ?  The  best  he  could  do  was  to  trust  the  defence  of 
the  path  to  the  Phocians,  who  knew  the  ground  and  volunteered 
for  the  service.  Thus  Leonidas  and  his  little  army  of  10,000 
men*  found  themselves  in  tlie  very  position  wliich  had  seemed  so 
dangerous  at  Tempe,  and  the  Peloponnesian  troops  began  to  talk 
of  falling  back  upon  the  isthmus,  their  last  line  of  defence ;  but 
the  indignant  remonstrances  of  tlie  Phocians  and  Locrians  helped 
Leonidas  to  keep  the  allies  to  their  post,  while  ho  despatched 
urgent  demands  for  reinforcements. 

Much  now  depended  on  the  fleet,  which  was  stationed  at  Arte- 
misium,  under  Eurybiades.  It  consisted  of  271  triremes  (besides 
a  few  smaller  vessels),  of  which  100  were  furnished  by  Athens, 
besides  20  lent  by  her  to  the  Chalcidians,  40  l)y  Corinth,  20  by 
Megara,  18  by  -^gina,  12  by  Sicyon,  and  10  by  Lacedaimon.f 
The  Athenian  ships  were  commanded  by  Themistocles,  the  Corin- 
thian by  Adimantus.  Three  triremes  were  sent  to  reconnoitre  the 
Persian  fleet,  which  still  lay  in  the  Gulf  of  Tlierma ;  and  their  cap- 
ture by  ten  Persian  ships,  which  had  sailed  out  on  a  like  errand, 
formed  the  first  collision  of  the  war.  A  panic  seized  the  Grecian 
fleet,  which  abandoned  its  all-important  post,  and  fell  back  to  the 
narrowest  part  of  the  Euripus,  off  Chalcis,  leaving  Thermopylge 
uncovered  just  about  the  time  that  Xerxes,  having  been  guided 
from  Therma  by  the  Macedonians  and  Thessalians,  encamped  off 
the  entrance  to  the  pass. 

And  now  for  the  first  time  during  his  progress  Xerxes  was  visited 
by  that  divine  rebuke  of  overweening  arrogance,  in  which  the 
Greeks  so  stedfastly  believed.  His  fleet,  on  the  report  of  the  ten 
ships  that  the  Thessalian  coast  was  clear,  set  sail  from  the  Gulf 
of  Therma  eleven  days  after  the  king  had  begun  his  land  march, 
and  advanced,  in  one  long  day's  voyage,  down  the  iron-bound 
coast  of  Magnesia,  to  the  open  beach  of  Sepias  Acte.:|:     Some  of 

*  This  is  a  rough  estimate,  including  the  light-armed  troops. 

f  These  numbers  show  in  a  very  interesting  manner  tlie  distribution  of  naval  force 
among  the  chief  maritime  states.  The  remaining  triremes  were— 8  Epidaurian,  1 
Erctrian,  5  Troezenian,  2  from  Styrus  in  Euboea,  and  2  from  the  island  of  Ceos.  The 
9  "  penteconters"  (vessels  propelled  by  50  oars  in  one  rank,  25  on  each  side)  were 
furnished  by  Ceos  and  the  Opuntian  Locrians. 

X  This  part  of  the  coast  is  lined  by  the  precipices  of  Mount  Pclion.  The  long 
peninsula  running  out  to  the  south,  and  finally  bending  round  to  the  west,  encloses 
the  Pagasaean  bay.  The  promontory  of  Sepias  is  at  the  S.  E.  point  of  this  peninsula, 
just  opposite  to  the  N.  E.  point  of  Euboea.     Aphetae,  the  subsequent  station  of  the 


414  THE  PERSIAN  WARS.  [Chap.  XIII. 

the  sliips  were  drawn  up  on  shore,  and  the  rest  were  crowded  at 
anchor  in  the  roadstead,  when  a  furious  storm  burst  full  upon  the 
coast,  and  raged  for  three  days  and  nights.  Four  hundred  ships 
of  war  and  innumerable  transports  were  cast  away,  with  a  frightful 
loss  of  life  and  stores.  On  the  fourth  day  the  Persian  admiral 
carried  round  the  shattered  remnant  of  his  fleet  to  the  roadstead 
of  AphetfE,  opposite  to  Artemisium.  The  Greeks,  on  hearing  of 
the  disaster,  plucked  up  courage,  returned  to  their  old  station,  and 
captured  fifteen  stray  ships  of  the  enemy. 

Xerxes  meanwhile  lay  encamped  at  Trachis,  awaiting  the  appear- 
ance of  his  fleet.  Any  serious  resistance  from  the  handful  of 
Greeks  who  occupied  the  pass  did  not  enter  into  his  calculations. 
So  at  least  Herodotus  informs  us ;  but  while  we  are  bound  to 
repeat  the  story  the  great  historian  has  told,  we  must  bear  in 
mind  the  poetical  complexion  of  his  narrative.  "  Though  we  read 
thus  in  Herodotus,  it  is  hardly  possible  to  believe  that  we  are 
reading  historical  reality ;  we  rather  find  laid  out  before  us  a 
picture  of  human  self-conceit  in  its  most  exaggerated  form,  ripe 
for  the  stroke  of  the  jealous  gods,  and  destined,  like  the  interview 
between  Croesus  and  Solon,  to  point  and  enforce  that  moral  which 
was  ever  present  to  the  mind  of  the  historian,  whose  religious  and 
poetical  imagination,  even  unconsciously  to  himself,  surrounds 
the  naked  facts  of  history  with  accompaniments  of  speech  and 
motive  which  neither  Homer  nor  ^schylus  would  have  deemed 
unsuitable."  *  And  yet  we  must  not  forget,  on  the  other  hand, 
how  much  of  the  inner  spirit  of  history  is  revealed  only  by  a 
writer  who  unites  the  genius  of  a  poet  to  the  research  of  a 
chronicler.  It  required  imaginative  power  to  bring  out  the 
oriental  element  of  exaggeration  in  the  facts  themselves. 

Four  days  of  expectation  exhausted  the  king's  patience,  the 
more  that  his  curiosity  was  vehemently  excited.  A  horseman 
whom  he  had  sent  to  espy  the  pass,  reported  that  he  had  seen  the 
Spartans  of  the  advanced  guard,  in  front  of  the  wall,  practising 
their  gymnastic  exercises  as  if  no  enemy  were  near;  and  once 
more  the  king  heard  with  incredulity  from  Demaratus,  what  sort 
of  a  foe  he  had  to  deal  with.  On  the  fifth  day  he  sent  the  Median 
and  Cissian  divisions  with  the  simple  order  to  bring  the  rebels  into 
his  presence.  The  Medes  advanced,  eager  to  blot  out  the  disgrace 
of  which  they  had  borne  the  chief  share  at  Marathon ;  but  again 
they  encountered  the  serried  phalanx  of  long  spears  in  the  grasp 

Persian  fleet,  lies  further  west,  after  rounding  the  headland,  and  just  at  the  entrance 

of  the  Pagasacan  bay.  *  Grotc,  History  of  Greece,  vol.  v.  pp.  116-7. 


B.C.  480.]     ATTACK  AND  DEFENCE  OF  THERMOPYLyE.  415 

of  warriors  wliose  broad  shields  and  full  panoply  were  less  invul- 
nerable tban  the  courage  that  armed  their  hearts,  and  whose  steady 
ranks  and  narrow  front  made  numbers  of  no  avail.  The  wicker 
shields  and  tunics  of  the  Medes  were  as  useless  for  defence  as  their 
short  spears  for  attack,  and  the  storm  of  arrows  from  the  rear 
rattled  vainly  on  the  surrounding  rocks.  Their  repulse,  with 
murderous  slaughter,  was  shared  by  the  guard  of  Immortals  on 
the  following  day.  Xerxes,  who  sat  in  state  at  the  mouth  of  the 
pass,  to  receive  the  expected  prisoners,  thrice  gave  vent  to  his 
terror  for  his  army  by  starting  from  his  throne. 

It  was  at  this  crisis  that  the  secret  of  the  pass  over  Mount 
(Eta  was  revealed  to  Xerxes  by  a  Malian  named  Ephialtes.* 
Hydarnes,  despatched  about  nightfall  with  a  body  of  Persian 
troops,  easily  dispersed  the  Phocians,  and  descended  into  the  rear 
of  Thermopylae  shortly  after  noon.  The  news  of  their  betrayal 
had  reached  the  Greeks  in  time  for  them  to  retreat,  and  we  might 
suppose  that  a  position  now  untenable  might  have  been  abandon- 
ed even  with  glory  after  such  a  defence.  But  the  Spartans  had 
another  code  of  honour.  ^Neither  general  nor  soldier  might  yield 
his  post  to  the  most  overwhelming  numbers,  and  what  we  call  the 
useless  sacrifice  of  life  was  to  them  a  simple  act  of  duty.  The 
glory  of  Leonidas  and  his  three  hundred  Spartan  citizens  consist- 
ed, not  in  a  deed  of  extraordinary  self-sacrifice,  but  in  standing 
faithful,  in  the  hour  of  extreme  trial,  to  the  ordinary  discipline  of 
Sparta.  As  Demaratus  told  Xerxes  over  their  dead  bodies,  there 
were  8000  citizens  left,  each  ready  to  do  the  same.  Ko  such 
stringent  law  was  binding  on  the  other  Greeks,  and  the  Pelopon- 
nesians  in  particular  might  live  to  do  good  service  behind  the 
ramparts  of  the  isthmus.  Well  knowing  how  the  great  example 
of  heroism,  which  Greece  sorely  needed,  would  be  tarnished  by  the 
presence  of  a  craven  spirit,  Leonidas,  like  another  leader  of  Three 
Hundred  against  a  host,f  ordered  the  allies  to  retire.  His  com- 
mand was  seconded  by  the  prophet  Megistias,  who  sent  away  his 
only  son,  but  persisted  in  staying  to  share  the  sacrifice  he  had 
predicted.  There  still  remained  the  700  Thespians,  who  would  not 
survive  their  city,  now  laid  open  to  the  invader ;  and,  strange  to 
say,  the  400  Thebans,  who  may  have  deemed  surrender  on  the 
battle-field  their  best  policy.:}:  The  300  Spartans  were,  of  course, 
attended  by  their  Helots. 

*  The  Amphictyons  set  a  price  upon  his  head  after  the  repulse  of  the  invasion,  and 
he  was  slain  by  a  private  enemy.  \  Gideon :  Judges  vii. 

X  See  Mr.  Grote's  criticism  of  the  statement  of  Herodotus,  that  they  were  detained 
by  Leonidas  as  hostages.     {History  of  Greece,  vol.  v.,  pp.   122-3.)     We  are  not,  how- 


416  THE  PERSIAN"  WARS.  [Cuap.  XIII. 

The  main  attack  of  tlie  Persians  was  delayed  till  noon,  to 
give  time  for  Ilydarnes  to  complete  tlie  circuit  of  the  mountain- 
path.  Leonidas  and  his  Thousand  left  their  rampart,  and  came 
forward  into  the  wider  plain,  resolved  to  crown  their  own  sacrifice 
by  the  immolation  of  as  many  barbarians  as  possible.  Thei* 
resistless  charge  on  the  crowd  of  Asiatics,  hemmed  in  by  the 
second  pass  behind  them,  forced  numbers  into  the  sea  and  the 
morass,  while  numbers  more  were  trampled  down  by  the  fresh 
hosts  who  were  driven  forward  by  the  whips  of  the  Persian  officei's. 
At  length  the  Grecian  spears  were  broken,  and  Leonidas  himself 
was  killed.  Sword  in  hand  they  fought  over  his  body,  like  the 
heroes  on  the  plain  of  Ilium  for  the  corpse  of  Sarpedon  or 
Patroclus.  Four  times  did  the  Greeks  repulse  the  utmost  efforts 
of  the  enemy,  killing  two  brothers  of  Xerxes,  with  many  Persian 
nobles.  The  Spartans  at  length  carried  off  the  body  of  their  king. 
The  force  led  by  Ephialtes  over  the  mountain  path  was  now  seen 
approaching,  and  the  Greeks  retired  behind  the  shelter  of  the  wall. 
And  now  the  Thebans,  seeing  that  all  was  lost,  advanced  in  the 
attitude  of  suppliants,  exclaiming  that  they  had  been  among  the 
first  to  give  earth  and  water  to  the  king.  They  were  admitted  to 
surrender,  but  their  bodies  were  branded  to  mark  them  as  royal 
slaves.  The  exhausted  remnant  posted  themselves  in  a  close 
body  upon  a  hillock  in  the  entrance  of  the  naiTow  pass.  Few  had 
swords  or  daggers  left ;  the  rest  still  fought  with  hands  and  teeth. 
The  barbarians  at  length  pulled  down  a  large  portion  of  the  wall, 
and,  pouring  round  them  on  all  sides,  overwhelmed  them  beneath 
a  shower  of  missiles.  They  were  slain  to  the  last  man,  Thespians 
as  well  as  Spartans.  When  Xerxes  came  to  view  the  slain,  his 
first  transport  of  rage  at  the  enormous  slaughter  vented  itself, 
contrary  to  the  Persian  custom,  in  insults  on  the  body  of  Leonidas, 
whose  head  he  ordered  to  be  cut  oflf,  and  his  body  to  be  hung  upon 
a  cross.  The  other  Greeks  were  buried  where  they  fell,  and 
monmnents  were  afterwards  erected  to  them  on  the  battle-field  by 
the  Amphictyons.  One,  in  honour  of  all  who  fell  during  the 
whole  defence,  bore  the  inscription  : — 

"  Here  did  four  thousand  men  from  Pelops'  land 
Against  three  hundred  myriads  bravely  stand." 

A  second  commemorated  the  Three  Hundred  Spartans — 

"  Go,  stranger,  and  to  Lacedjemon  tell 
That  here,  obeying  her  behests,  we  fell." 

ever,  precluded  from  the  more  generous  hypothesis,  that  the  Thebans  were  the  faithful 
representatives  of  the  Anti-Medking  minority  in  their  city. 


B.C.  480.]  MONUMENTS  AT  THERMOPYL^.  417 

The  seer  Megistias  was  honoured  by  his  warm  friend,  Simonides, 
with  a  separate  pillar  and  epitaph — 

"  The  great  Megistias'  tomb  you  here  may  view,    4 

Whom  slew  the  Medes,  fresh  from  Spercheius'  fords ; 
Well  the  wise  seer  the  coming  death  foreknew, 
Yet  scorned  he  to  forsake  his  Spartan  lords." 

On  the  hillock  where  the  last  stand  was  made,  a  marble  lion  was 
erected  to  the  memory  of  Leonidas ;  and  the  allusion  to  his  name, 
in  the  emblem  chosen  for  his  monument,  is  pointed  by  an  epigram 
doubtfully  ascribed  to  Simonides.  We  still  possess  the  following 
fragment  of  a  lyric  ode,  composed  by  the  same  great  poet  to  the 
glory  of  the  heroes  of  Thermopylai : — 

"  Of  those  who  at  Thermopylae  were  slain 

Glorious  the  doom,  and  beautiful  the  lot ; 
Their  tomb  an  altar :  men  from  tears  refrain, 

To  honour  them,  and  praise  but  mourn  them  not. 
Such  sepulchre  nor  drear  decay 
Nor  all-destroying  time  shall  waste — this  right  have  they. 
Within  their  grave  the  home-bred  glory 

Of  Greece  was  laid ;  this  witness  gives 
Leonidas,  the  Spartan,  in  whose  story 

A  wreath  of  famous  virtue  ever  lives."  * 

The  individual  names  of  the  Three  Hundred  became  familiar  to  the 
Greeks ;  Herodotus  knew  them  all,  and  the  traveller  Pausanias 
saw  them  six  hundred  years  later  inscribed  on  a  pillar  at  Sparta. 

Well  did  they  deserve  the  highest  honours  from  the  gratitude 
of  their  country,  and  the  admiration  of  freemen  in  every  age.  At 
a  crisis  when  the  few  states  that  had  not  bowed  to  the  despot 
were  trembling  for  their  fate,  their  example  was  a  pledge  of  the 
issue  of  the  conflict — 

"  For  Freedom's  battle  once  begun, 
Bequeathed  from  bleeding  sire  to  son,f 
Though  baffled  oft,  is  ever  won." 

Many  a  wavering  resolution  must  have  been  fixed  by  the  sense  of 
shame,  forbidding  to  desert  the  cause  baptized  with  the  blood  of 

*  Translated  by  Sterling.     The  three  former  translations  are  from  RawUnson's  Herod- 
otus, book  vii.,  chap.  228. 

f  The  literal  application  of  this  to  the  Three  Hundred  Spartans  is  a  very  interesting 
fact.  Herodotus  tells  us  that  Leonidas  chose  for  the  Three  Hundred,  men  of  mature 
age,  and  who  had  sons.  "  In  selecting  men  for  a  dangerous  service,  the  Spartans  took 
by  preference  those  who  already  had  families.  If  such  a  man  was  slain,  he  left  behind 
him  a  son  to  discharge  his  duties  to  the  state,  and  to  maintain  the  continuity  of  the 
family  sacred  rites,  the  extinction  of  which  was  considered  as  a  great  misfortune.  In 
our  ideas,  the  life  of  the  father  of  a  family  in  mature  age  would  be  considered  as  of 
more  value,  and  his  death  a  greater  loss,  than  that  of  a  younger  and  unmarried  man." 
Grote,  History  of  Greece,  vol.  v.,  p.  100. 
VOL.  I. — 27 


418  THE  PERSIAN  WA^.!5.  [Chap.  XIII. 

Leonidas,  or  to  leave  liim  and  his  comrades  unavenged.  The 
slaughter  of  tlie  Persians  was  an  ofiering  due  to  their  Manes ;  the 
freedom  of  Gre(»e  a  reward  owing  to  their  devotion.  In  that 
freedom  were  involved  the  liberties  of  the  whole  world ;  and  the 
Locrian  pass  deserved,  in  tlie  most  literal  sense,  the  description 
which  has  been  used  as  a  figure,  "  The  TnEEMOPYLiE  of  the 
Universe." 

Their  glory  was  contrasted  by  the  disgrace  of  one  solitary 
survivor.  Two  Spartans,  Eurytus  and  Aristodemus,  were  detained 
at  the  village  of  Alpeni  by  severe  ophthalmia  during  the  first 
days  of  the  contest.  When  news  was  brought  that  the  fatal  hour 
was  at  hand,  the  former  called  for  his  armour,  and,  supj)lying  the 
loss  of  siglit  by  the  guidance  of  his  Helot,  stood  and  fell  in  his 
place.  The  latter,  too  weak  in  body  or  resolution  to  follow  the 
example,  was  carried  back  to  Sparta  by  the  Greeks  who  left  the 
field,  and  only  wiped  away  the  infamy  which  was  heaped  upon 
him  as  "  the  coward  Aristodemus,"  by  a  glorious  death  at  Plataea 
in  the  following  year. 

Meanwhile  the  sacrifice  of  Leonidas  might  seem  to  have  been 
made  in  vain.  During  the  contest  at  Thermopylae,  the  fleet  which 
had  returned  to  Artemisium  had  been  kept  there  only  by  the  use 
of  unsparing  bribery  among  the  Peloponnesian  commanders  by 
Themistocles,  with  money  supplied  by  the  Eubceans.  The  two 
indecisive  battles  which  ensued  at  Artemisium  taught  the  Greeks 
that  they  could  fight  on  at  least  equal  terms  with  the  Phoenician, 
Egyptian,  and  Carian  mariners,  who  formed  the  chief  strength  of 
the  Persian  fleet ;  and  a  second  great  storm  dashed  to  pieces,  on 
the  rocks  of  Eubffia,  a  detachment  of  200  ships  which  had  been 
sent  around  the  island  to  take  the  Greek  navy  in  the  rear.  The 
loss  of  Thermopylae  of  course  rendered  the  continuance  of  the 
Grecian  fleet  at  Euboea  useless  as  well  as  doubly  dangerous,  and 
they  retired  through  the  Euboic  channel  to  the  bay  of  Salamis. 
On  every  conspicuous  headland  Themistocles  set  up  inscriptions, 
entreating  the  lonians  not  to  fight  against  their  countrymen,  not 
so  much  in  the  hope  of  gaining  them  over,  as  of  weakening  the 
Persian  navy  by  the  working  of  suspicion. 

The  whole  of  l^Torthern  Greece  now  lay  defenceless  before  the 
invader  ;  and,  had  Xerxes  followed  the  advice  of  Demaratus,  the 
Isthmus  of  Corinth  would  have  proved  a  vain  defence  for  Pelopon- 
nesus. It  was  directly  after  the  slaughter  of  the  Three  Hundred  at 
Thermopylae,  that  Xerxes  consulted  the  exiled  king  as  to  what  he 
might  expect  from  the  compatriots  of  such  men,  and  what  would  be 


B.C.  480.]  ATTICA  ABANDONED.  419 

the  least  difficult  way  of  subduing  their  resistance.  Demaratus 
advised  him  to  send  part  of  his  fleet  to  seize  the  island  of  Cythera, 
as  a  station  from  which  to  assault  the  coasts  of  Laconia,  and  so  to 
recall  the  Spartans  from  the  defence  of  the  Isthmus,  But  Xerxes 
was  strongly  urged  by  his  brother  Achsemenes  not  to  divide  his 
fleet,  already  weakened  by  the  two  great  storms,  but  to  keep  the 
whole  campaign  under  his  own  eye.  IS^o  prompt  effort  was  even 
made  to  pursue  the  Grecian  fleet. 

The  Greeks  had  waited  the  event  at  the  stand  at  Thermopylae 
and  Artemisium.  'No  advance  had  been  made  even  when  the  fes- 
tivals were  over,  nor  had  the  succours  been  despatched  which  the 
Spartans  had  promised  to  send  into  Boeotia  to  cover  Athens ;  and 
now  their  alarm  was  in  proportion  to  their  previous  supineness. 
All  the  wavering  states  of  the  north,  and  those  which  had  already 
sent  in  their  submission  secretly,  sided  openly  with  Xerxes. 
Thebes  opened  her  arms  to  a  detachment  under  Demaratus,  and 
the  other  Boeotian  cities  received  garrisons,  still  with  the  exception 
of  the  two  faithful  states.  The  Thespians  fled  to  the  Peloponne- 
sians  behind  the  Isthmus ;  the  Platneans  landed  from  the  Athenian 
ships  in  the  Euripus,  only  to  remove  their  families  and  reembark 
in  the  bay  of  Salamis.  The  Peloponnesians  abandoned  the  hope 
of  naval  resistance,  and  set  to  work  with  all  their  might  to  fortify 
the  Isthmus.  The  Athenians  lay  naked  to  the  vengeance  which 
had  been  aimed  first  of  all  at  them.  Though  tliey  had  accepted 
the  extreme  measures  proposed  by  Themistocles,  they  seem  to  have 
trusted  that  the  necessity  would  not  arise,  until  their  fleet  cast 
anchor  at  Phalerum,  then  the  port  of  Athens.  Xerxes  might  be 
expected  at  Athens  in  six  days.  As  soon  as  an  assembly  could 
be  convened,  the  edict  was  published  throughout  Attica,  that 
homesteads  must  be  dismantled,  property  abandoned,  and  every 
family  must  embark  as  speedily  as  possible.  We  should  attempt 
in  vain  to  depict  the  agony  of  the  sacrifice ;  the  misery  suffered 
by  the  aged  and  infirm,  the  women  and  the  children ;  the  despair 
of  ever  revisiting  their  homes ;  the  desolation  to  which  they  re- 
turned at  last.*  No  wonder  that  some  of  the  poorest  class  still 
sought  a  despairing  refuge  behind  the  "wooden  wall"  of  the 
Acropolis,  and  made  their  interpretation  of  the  oracle  more  literal 
by  a  timber  barricade  at  the  western  entrance.  But  the  guardian 
goddess  of  the  city  f  gave  an  omen  that  she,  too,  had  flitted  from 

*  Three  times  in  modern  history  the  scene  has  been  repeated  in  Attica. 

f  Athena  Polias.     In  her  ancient  sanctuary  on  the  Acropolis  a  serpent  was  supposed 


420  THE  PERSIAN  WARS.  [Chap.  XIII. 

her  temple ;  and  Tliemistoeles  ceased  not  to  remind  the  people 
that  the  oracle  liad  promised  safety  behind  their  wooden  walls. 
That  all  might  be  united  at  such  a  crisis,  he  himself  proposed  the 
recall  of  Aristides.  Cimon,  the  son  of  Miltiades,  acted  in  full  con- 
cert with  Xanthippus,  his  accuser;  and  the  liberality  of  the 
wealthy  vied  with  the  wise  measures  of  the  state  in  providing  for 
the  support  of  tlie  fleet  and  the  maintenance  of  the  poorer  citizens. 
The  voluntary  exiles  found  refuge,  some  at  -^gina,  most  at  Troezen, 
on  the  opposite  coast  of  Peloponnesus,  while  many  refused  to  go 
further  than  Salamis,  and  watched  from  its  rocky  shores  the  crisis 
of  their  country's  fate.  Troezen  had  been  first  appointed  as  the 
rendezvous  of  the  allied  fleet ;  but  the  Athenians  had  entreated 
Eurybiades  to  stay  at  Salamis  and  assist  in  the  removal  of  their 
families.  The  Athenians  had  now  a  new  motive  for  remaining 
near  the  island  and  almost  in  sight  of  Athens ;  and  we  cannot 
doubt  that  Themistocles  had  marked  its  bay  as  the  fittest  scene  of 
the  naval  battle  on  which  he  knew  that  the  fate  of  Greece  de- 
pended.* Before  describing  that  position,  we  must  trace  the  march 
of  Xerxes  to  the  heights  from  which  he  saw  the  destruction  of  his 
liopes. 

The  astonishment  of  the  Persian  at  seeing  no  army  appear  to 
support  or  avenge  Leonidas  became  extreme,  w^hen  he  learnt  that 
the  Greeks  had  been  wholly  occupied  with  games,  in  which  a 
wreath  of  wild  olive  was  the  prize.  His  whole  armament  was  now 
directed  upon  Athens,  the  contumacious  city  that  had  heaped  so 
many  insults  on  his  father  and  himself.  His  troops  plundered 
and  destroyed  the  towns  of  the  Phocians,  his  only  remaining  ene- 
mies outside  of  Attica  and  the  Isthmus ;  and  the  same  fate  befell 
Thespice  and  Plataea.  But  the  Delphic  god  knew  how  to  protect 
his  shrine  against  the  Persians,  just  as,  long  afterwards,  against 
Brennus  and  the  Gauls.  The  Delphians,  w^hile  seeking  safety 
for  themselves  among  the  clifts  of  Parnassus,  were  forbidden  by 
the  oracle  to  remove  the  sacred  treasures ;  and  the  consecrated 
arms,  which  hung  in  the  inmost  shrine,  were  found  transferred  to 
the  vestibule  of  the  temple.  Only  sixty  of  the  Delphians  took 
courage  to  remain ;  but  their  defence  was  needless.  The  force 
detached  by  Xerxes  from  his  line  of  march  to  plunder  the  temple 
had  advanced  up  the  defile  between  the  clifis  of  Parnassus  as  far 
as  the  temple  of  Athena,  when  the  war-cry  of  the  goddess  was 

to  live  concealed,  and  to  feed  upon  the  honey-cake  which  was  placed  for  it  every  month. 
At  this  juncture  the  cake  was  for  the  first  time  untouched. 
*  See  the  remark  above,  p.  408,  note. 


B.C.  480.]  DESTRUCTION"  OF  ATHENS.  421 

lieard ;  a  crash  of  thuuder  burst  above  their  heads,  and  two  huge 
crags  fell  across  the  path,  killing  many  of  the  assailants.  The 
rest  fled  in  panic  terror,  pursued  by  the  small  Delphian  garrison ; 
and,  as  they  themselves  averred,  by  two  unearthly  champions,  in 
whom  the  Greeks  recognised  tutelary  heroes  of  the  place.  Such, 
at  least,  was  the  story  told  to  Herodotus  by  the  Delphians,  wit- 
nesses as  interested  as  the  historian  was  credulous.*  The  sight 
of  the  fallen  crags  was  all  the  confirmation  he  needed.  We  might 
easily  make  guesses  about  an  opportune  storm,  and  so  forth ;  but 
it  is  enough  to  say  that  we  have  no  sufficient  historic  evidence 
of  a  miracle  which,  if  real,  would  prove  the  deity  of  Apollo  and 
Athena. 

From  the  deserted  territory  of  Attica,  Xerxes  coulck  only  glean 
five  hundred  prisoners,  to  represent  the  host  of  captives  he  had 
expected  to  carry  back  to  Asia.  The  feeble  remnant  made  a 
desperate  defence  of  the  Acropolis,  which  was  at  last  taken,  like 
Sardis,  by  a  sudden  escalade.f  The  garrison  were  put  to  the 
sword,  and  the  temples  and  other  buildings  of  the  Acropolis  were 
plundered  and  burnt.  But  from  the  very  midst  of  the  ruins  the 
goddess  vouchsafed  an  omen  of  the  life  which  would  yet  flourish 
on  the  sacred  spot.  The  wild  olive  which  had  won  for  her  the 
city  had  been  burnt  in  the  conflagration.  Two  days  later,  the 
Pisistratids  who  had  followed  Xerxes,  having  obtained  permission 
to  perform  expiatory  rites  for  the  desecration  of  the  Acropolis, 
found  that  the  charred  stump  had  throwm  out  a  fresh  shoot  of  a 
cubit  in  length.  ]^or  was  this  the  only  portent.  The  day  chanced 
to  be  that  on  which,  in  happier  times,  the  Initiated  marched  in 
procession  from  Athens  to  Elusis ;  and  the  fancy  of  one  of  the 
Pisistratid  party,  that  he  heard  the  solemn  chaunt  and  saw  the 
cloud  of  dust  in  the  Thriasian  plain,  was  accepted  as  an  omen  that 
the  Elusinian  deities  were  passing  over  to  aid  the  Athenians  at 
Salamis.  Such  were  the  indications  that  faith  in  the  cause  of 
liberty  was  not  confined  to  the  fleet  which  seemed  to  be  the  ark 
of  its  refuge ;  nor  can  we  deny  to  such  a  faith  a  purer  source  than 
the  worship  of  Athena  or  the  mysteries  ofEleusis. 

Just  at  the  time  when  the  Acropolis  was  burnt,  the  Persian 
fleet  arrived  at  Phalerum,  the  port  of  Athens ;  and  Xerxes  was 
able,  just  four  months  after  he  had  left   Asia,  to  delight  his 

*  Huge  fallen  blocks  are  still  to  be  seen  in  the  pass ;  and  the  region  bears  many 
marks  of  volcanic  action. 


feat 


f  See  chap,  x.,  p.  273.     The  capture  of  Edinburgh  Castle,  by  Randolph,  was  a  similai 


422  THE  PERSIAN  WARS.  [Chap.  XIII. 

courtiers  at  Susa  with  tlie  news  that  he  held  the  rebellious  city 
in  his  grasp  by  sea  and  land — a  city  indeed  no  longer,  for  nothing 
remained  of  it  but  its  ashes.  But  the  doom  of  overweening  arro- 
gance trod  close  upon  his  footsteps. 

The  promontory  of  yEgaleos  now  alone  divided  his  immense 
navy  from  the  Grecian  fleet  in  the  bay  of  Salamis,  and  all  his 
thoughts  were  bent  upon  a  great  victory  at  sea.  In  a  council  of 
the  naval  commanders,  Artemisia,  the  Carian  queen  of  Ilalicar- 
nassus,  alone  had  the  courage  to  advise  that  the  army  should  at 
once  be  pushed  on  to  the  Isthmus,  when  the  Peloponnesian  ships 
would  return  to  guard  their  own  shores,  and  an  easy  victory  might 
be  gained  over  the  Athenians.  But  Xerxes  was  not  conducting 
the  campaign  on  strategic  principles.  His  was  to  be  a  triumphant 
progress,  crushing  all  resistance  where  it  met  him ;  and  his  pride 
was  above  all  concerned  in  carrying  away  the  whole  Athenian 
people  as  captives.  This  must  have  been  well  known  to  the  Icings 
of  Tyre  and  Sidon,  and  the  other  chiefs  of  the  fleet,  when,  with  the 
one  dissentient  voice  of  Artemisia,  they  advised  an  attack,  which 
Xerxes  fixed  for  the  following  day. 

Meanwhile  the  object  at  which  Artemisia  had  pointed  was 
almost  gained  by  the  folly  of  the  Peloponnesians.  The  fleet  in 
the  bay  of  Salamis  numbered  366  ships,  of  which  200  were 
Athenian,  40  Corinthian,  30  ^ginetan,  20  Megarian,  and  16 
Lacedaemonian ;  the  remaining  50  belonging  to  other  states.  All 
Italy  sent  but  one  trireme,  equipped  and  led  by  a  volunteer, 
Phayllus.  This  is  the  statement  of  Herodotus ;  but  we  have 
another  authority  of  the  highest  order  in  the  tragedy  of  JEschylus, 
entitled  "  The  Persians,"  acted  just  seven  yeare  after  the  battle,  at 
which  the  poet  himself  was  present,  ^schylus  makes  the  number 
of  the  Greek  ships  engaged  at  Salamis  300,  besides  ten  chosen 
ships.  He  reckons  the  Persian  navy  at  1207  ships,  the  very 
number  named  by  Herodotus  as  present  at  the  review  of  Doriscus, 
though  the  reinforcements  received  meanwhile  do  not  seem  to 
have  been  equal  to  the  numbers  lost. 

The  hope  of  success  in  a  conflict  so  unequal  depended  not  only 
on  the  valour  of  the  Greeks  but  on  the  peculiar  naval  tactics  of  that 
time.  The  great  step  had  as  yet  been  but  partly  taken,  of  making 
the  ship  herself  the  chief  weapon  of  attack,  and  disabling  an  antag- 
onist by  rapid  evolutions  and  repeated  charges  ;*  now  sweeping 
away  a  whole  bank  of  oars,  and  now  urging  the  sharp  stem  upon  the 

*  From  very  early  times  the  Greek  ships  were  furnished  with  some  sort  of  a  beak,  to 
run  down  an  enemy ;  but  this  plan  was  not  yet  exclusively  relied  on. 


B.C.  480.]  THE  BAY  OF   3ALAMIS.  423 

enemy's  broadside.  Such,  evolutions,  by  wliicli  the  Athenians 
gained  their  great  battles  in  the  Peloponnesian  War,  required  both 
an  open  sea  and  daring  seamanship.  But  while  a  naval  battle 
was  conducted  l)y  grappling  ship  to  ship,  so  that  the  hoplites 
fought  hand  to  hand  upon  the  decks,  an  open  sea  gave  the 
superior  force  the  best  chance  of  surrounding  the  inferior,  and 
crushing  them  by  the  weight  of  numbers.  In  a  strait,  or  other 
narrow  space,  not  only  was  the  advantage  of  numbers  neutralised  in 
a  great  degree,  as  in  a  narrow  pass  on  land,  but  the  crowded  ships 
caused  far  more  mutual  danger  than  a  crowded  army,  especially  when 
manned  by  various  nations.  The  Greeks  had  chosen  Artemisium 
for  the  sake  of  fighting  in  a  narrow  space,  and  the  position  they 
now  held  at  Salamis  was  singularly  adapted  to  the  same  tactics. 
That  position  is  shown  in  the  accompanying  map  (on  p.  425). 

Between  Megara  and  Athens,  the  coast  makes  a  great  bend  to 
the  north,  forming  the  bay  of  Eleusis,  on  the  east  of  which  the 
headland  of  ^galeos  divides  Eleusis  and  the  Thriasian  plain  from 
the  plain  of  Athens.  The  island  of  Salamis  lies  in  the  mouth  of 
the  Eleusinian  bay,  its  rocky  heights  forming  a  connecting  link 
between  .^galeos  on  the  east  and  the  hills  of  Megara  on  the 
west,  ^galeos  is  divided  from  the  eastern  side  of  the  island  by 
a  strait  widening  at  the  middle  into  the  bay  on  which  stood 
the  town  of  Salamis.  Here  lay  the  Grecian  fleet,  covering  the 
town  of  Salamis  in  front,  with  all  that  it  held  dear  to  them,  while 
a  rampart  was  thrown  up  round  the  heights  in  the  rear,  and  pre- 
pared to  sally  forth  and  meet  the  enemy  at  either  end  of  the  strait. 
Beyond  the  eastern  opening  of  the  strait  lies  the  headland  on  the 
shores  of  which  the  Athenians  afterwards  formed  their  celebrated 
harbours,  Peirseus  on  the  west,  Phalerum  on  the  east,  and 
Munychia  at  the  centre.  At  present  Phalerum  was  the  port  of 
Athens,  and  the  head-quarters  of  the  Persian  fleet,  which  would 
naturally  occupy  all  the  neighbouring  ports ;  its  western  wing  was 
probably  at  Peirseus.  Such  being  the  position,  the  Greeks  had 
still  the  choice  to  fight  or  fly ;  and,  in  a  council  called  by  Eury- 
biades,  the  general  voice  of  the  Peloponnesians  was  in  favour  of 
retiring  to  the  Istlimus,  w^here  they  would  be  in  communication 
with  the  land  army.  In  vain  did  Themistocles  represent  that  such 
a  step  would  not  only  surrender-  the  best  possible  position,  but 
would  break  up  the  navy  into  separate  contingents,  each  hastening 
to  defend  its  own  state.  The  news  of  the  burning  of  Athens 
arrived  in  the  midst  of  the  debate,  and  struck  such  terror  that 
some  at  once  left  the  council,  to  make  preparations  for  flight,  and 


424  THE  PERSIAN  WARS.  [Chap.  XIII. 

the  rest  decided  on  a  retreat  next  day.  Themistocles  seems  for 
the  moment  to  have  lost  heart,  oppressed  as  he  was  not  only  with 
the  ruin  of  the  common  cause,  but  with  the  care  of  once  more 
removing  the  families  that  had  taken  refuge  in  Salamis.  But  a 
faithful  friend  induced  him  to  make  one  more  effort.  He  went 
the  same  night  to  Eurybiades,  and  persuaded  him  to  convene 
another  council.  In  the  angry  debate  that  ensued,  Themistocles 
was  openly  insulted  by  Adimantus,  the  admiral  of  the  Corinthians, 
who  were  naturally  the  most  eager  advocates  of  a  retreat  to  the 
Isthmus.  At  length  Themistocles  made  a  vehement  appeal  to 
Eurybiades,  throwing  upon  him  the  responsibility  of  the  issue,  and 
threatening  that  the  Athenians  would  embark  their  families  and 
sail  away  to  Siris.  Thus  pressed,  Eurybiades  took  the  decision 
upon  himself,  and  issued  orders  to  stay  and  prepare  for  battle. 

The  next  day  was  that  upon  which  Xerxes  held  his  naval 
council,  and  towards  evening  movements  of  preparation  Avere 
observed  among  the  Persian  fleet.  At  the  same  time  news  was 
brought  to  the  Peloponnesians  that  their  brethren  at  the  Isthmus 
were  complaining  that  they  still  clung  to  Attica,  which  was 
already  lost,  instead  of  hastening  to  the  real  point  of  defence.  An 
open  mutiny  broke  out,  and  Eurybiades  convened  a  third  council, 
which  became  a  wrangling  altercation  betw^een  the  Athenians, 
Megarians,  and  JEginetans  on  the  one  side,  and  the  Pelopon- 
nesians on  the  other.  It  was  then  that  Themistocles  resolved  on 
the  most  astute  and  daring  stratagem  recorded  in  military  diplo- 
macy. Making  a  pretext  for  leaving  the  council,  he  despatched 
across  the  narrow  strait  a  trusty  slave — an  Asiatic  Greek  who 
could  speak  Persian — with  a  message  to  the  Persian  admirals — 
that  Themistocles,  as  a  well-wisher  to  the  king's  cause,  had  sent 
to  tell  them  that  the  Greeks  were  seized  with  fear,  and  were  medi- 
tating a  hasty  flight ;  it  would  be  the  best  work  they  had  ever 
done  to  hinder  them  from  escaping ;  in  fine,  so  much  were  the 
Greeks  at  variance,  that,  instead  of  resisting,  they  would  probably 
fight  among  themselves.  The  audacity  of  this  act  is  the  more 
remarkable,  that  we  find  Themistocles  pleading  it  as  a  claim  on 
the  favour  of  Xerxes,  when  he  sought  a  refuge  in  his  exile ;  nor 
does  the  suggestion  seem  improbable,  that  the  wily  Greek  foresaw 
the  possibility  that  such  an  occasion  might  arise,  and  framed  the 
terms  of  his  message  accordingly. 

The  Persian  admirals  fell  at  once  into  the  trap.  They  landed  a 
detachment  on  the  little  island  of  Psyttaleia,  ofi"  the  north-east 
point  of  Salamis,  the  direction  in  which  the  wrecks  might  be 


B.C.  480.] 


POSITIONS    OF   THE    TWO  FLEETS. 


425 


expected  to  drift,  with  the  view  of  rescuing  their  own  men  and 
destroying  those  of  the  enemy.  Meanwhile,  the  western  division 
of  the  fleet  sailed  through  the  strait  of  Salamis,  as  far  as  the 


A.  A.  A.  Persian  fleet. 

B.  B.  B.  Grecian  fleet. 

C.  C.  C.  Persian  army. 

D.  Throne  of  Xerxes. 

E.  New  Salamis. 

F.  Old  Salamis. 

G.  The  island  Psyttaleia. 
H.  Peirseus. 

I.  Phalerum. 

1.  Athenian  ships. 

2.  Lacedaemonian  and  other  Pe- 

loponnesian  ships. 


SALAMIS. 

8.  ^Eginetan  and  Euboean  ships. 

4.  Phoenician  ships. 

5.  Cyprian  ships. 

6.  Cilician  and  Pamphylian  ships. 

7.  Ionian  ships. 

8.  Persian  ships. 

9.  Egyptian  ships. 

a.  Prom.  Silenia  or  Tropaea.     ( Cape  of 
St.  Barbara.) 

b.  Prom.  Sciradium. 

c.  Prom.  Budorus. 


headland  which  terminates  the  bay  on  the  north-west,  followed  by 
the  main  body,  which  ranged  itself  along  the  shore  of  ^galeos 
across  the  mouth  of  the  bay,  closing  the  eastern  strait,  and  still 
extending  far  beyond  it  along  the  Attic  coast.*     The  manoeuvre 

*  See  the  map,,  in  which  the  Egyptian  ships  are  represented  in  the  position 
described  by  Diodorus,  having  sailed  round  Salamis  to  blockade  the  western  exit  from 
the  bay  of  Eleusis.  But  the  movement  seems  a  superfluous  precaution,  and  Hero- 
dotus not  only  says  nothing  of  it,  but  seems  to  imply  that  the  Egyptians  took  part 


425  THE  PEKSIAX  WARS.  [Chap.  XIII. 

M'as  completed  while  the  Greek  chiefs  were  still  in  fierce  debate, 
wliicli  Tliemistocles  took  care  to  prolong.  At  length  Aristides, 
who  had  not  before  returned  since  the  revocation  of  his  sentence 
of  banishment,  arrived  at  Salamis  from  ^gina,  and  was  the  first 
to  announce  that  the  Greek  fleet  was  completely  blockaded. 
Calling  Themistocles  out  of  the  council  he  communicated  to  him 
the  welcome  intellio-ence  which  made  an  engajji-ement  certain,  and 
undertook  to  inform  the  commanders.  Even  his  word  was  received 
with  incredulity,  till  the  news  was  confirmed  by  a  Tenian  galley, 
which  had  just  arrived  from  ^Egina,  having  passed  through  the 
Persian  fleet  under  cover  of  the  night.  Dissension  was  at  once 
hushed,  and  all  repaired  to  their  posts.  At  dawn  of  day  the  men- 
at-arms  were  mustered  on  the  beach,  and  after  speeches  from  their 
commanders,  among  which  that  of  Themistocles  was  conspicuous 
for  its  noble  eloquence,  they  went  on  board  their  ships,  and  put 
out  to  meet  the  enemy. 

The  position  of  the  two  fleets  now  bore  some  resemblance  to  the 
lines  of  battle  on  the  field  of  Marathon.  They  were  drawn  up 
face  to  face,  the  Greeks  having  their  wings  covered  by  the  head- 
lands of  the  bay.  Owing  to  the  confined  space,  their  smaller 
numbers  were  confronted  only  by  an  equal  line  of  the  enemy, 
whose  left  wing  lay  useless  far  beyond  the  strait.  The  Persian 
army  was  dra^\^l  up  along  the  shore ;  and  Xerxes  was  seated  on  a 
lofty  throne  upon  one  of  the  promontories  at  the  foot  of  ^galeos, 
overlooking  the  whole  scene,  with  the  royal  scribes  beside  him  to 
record  the  behaviour  of  the  combatants.* 

"  A  king  sat  on  the  rocky  brow, 

Which  looks  o'er  sea-born  Salamis ; 
And  ships  by  thousands  lay  below, 

^Vnd  men  in  nations — all  were  his. 
He  counted  them  at  break  of  day, 
And  when  the  sun  set,  where  were  they  ?  " 

Ilis  discontent  with  their  conduct  at  Artemisium  was  Avell  known, 

in  the  action.  There  is  great  difference  of  opinion  concerning  the  positions  of  the 
two  fleets.  Our  map  represents  the  view  of  Colonel  Leake,  founded  on  the  descrip- 
tion of  Herodotus,  and  followed  by  Mr.  Grote  and  the  majority  of  critics.  But  Canon 
Blakesley  derives  an  entirely  different  view  from  the  Persre  of  ^Eschylus,  and  makes 
the  open  sea  outside  of  the  southern  entrance  of  the  strait  the  scene  of  the  battle. 
See  Leake,  Demi  of  Attica,  ynp.  166,  foil,  and  appendix  ii.,  on  the  Battle  of  Salamis; 
Blakesley's  Herodotus,  Excursus  on  book  viii.,  chap.  T6 ;  Grote,  History  of  Greece, 
vol.  v.,  note  on  pp.  IVS,  173 ;  and  Rawlinson's  Herodotus,  vol.  iv.,  p.  341. 

*  See  the  very  interesting  note  of  Sir  Gardner  Wilkinson  on  the  position  of  the 
throne  of  Xerxes,  with  a  panoramic  view  taken  from  the  spot,  in  Rawlinson's  Herodo- 
tus, vol.  iv  ,  pp.  336-7. 


B.C.  480.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  SALAMIS.  427 

and  his  presence  seemed  to  inspire  tliem  with  a  zeal  fit  to  cope 
with  the  free  courage  of  theu\antagonists.  Among  them  were  the 
best  sailoi*s  of  the  world — Phoenicians,  Egyptians,  Cilicians,  and 
Greeks  of  Asia  Minor,  and  the  chosen  Persian  soldiers  served  on 
board  the  fleet.  The  lonians  seem  to  have  been  little  affected  by  the 
solicitations  of  Themistocles.  Some  indeed  were  backward  in  the 
fight,  but  most  showed  a  zeal  fit  to  disarm  suspicion ;  and  some 
earned  the  special  notice  of  the  king  by  their  gallant  captures  of 
shii:)S  from  the  enemy.  They  were  opposed  to  the  Lacedaemonians, 
Corinthians,  and  other  Peloponnesians,  who  held  the  post  of 
honour  on  the  right  of  the  Greek  line,  while  on  the  left  the 
Athenians  confronted  the  Phoenicians  and  Egyptians.  In  the 
centre,  the  ^ginetans  and  Euboeans  faced  the  Cyprians,  Cilicians, 
and  Pamphylians.  The  Corinthians  and  ^ginetans  were  the 
only  Greeks  whose  maritime  experience  could  compare  witli  that 
of  the  enemy.  The  Athenians  had  only  recently  created  their 
navy ;  but  they  fought  with  the  view  of  their  native  shores  before 
them,  with  the  eyes  of  their  wives  and  children  upon  them,  with 
the  memory  of  Marathon  in  their  hearts.  How  weak  was  the 
courage,  born  of  fear,  which  the  presence  of  Xerxes  exacted  from 
his  slaves,  compared  with  the  noble  thoughts  which  vEschylus 
heard  uttered  by  man  to  man  along  the  line  ! — 

"  Sons  of  the  Greeks,  advance ! 
Youi'  country  free,  your  children  and  your  wives, 
The  temples  of  your  fathers'  gods, 
Your  fathers'  sepulchres — 
All — all  are  now  at  stake."  * 

As  the  rising  sun  of  a  September  morning  cast  the  shadows  of 
-^galeos  across  the  bay,  the  Greek  fleet  put  out  from  the  shore  with 
the  accustomed  notes  of  the  war-hymn  to  Apollo.  The  Persians  ad- 
vanced to  meet  them  with  equal  ardour.  For  a  moment  their  steady 
front  struck  awe  into  the  Greeks.  They  began  to  back  their  oars, 
and  were  already  near  the  beach,  when  a  single  ship  darted  from  the 
ranks  and  became  locked  in  close  combat  with  a  Phoenician  galley.f 
At  the  same  moment  the  phantom  of  a  woman  appeared  to  hover 
over  their  line,  exclaiming,  "  Wretches  !  how  far  are  you  going  to 

*  ^schylus,  Fersce,  402. 

f  Herodotus  ascribes  this  deed  t  Ameinias  of  Pallene,  an  Athenian ;  but  he  iciis 
us  that  the  ^ginetans  claimed  it  for  the  galley  which  had  arrived  from  JEgina,  the  day 
before,  bringing  the  sacred  family  of  the  Jiacidae.  ^Eschylus  says  that  "o7ie  Greek 
ship  began  the  action,"  a  simplicity  of  phrase  which  gives  some  countenance  to  the 
statement  of  Diodorus,  that  Ameinias  was  the  brother  of  the  poet,  whose  other 
brother,  Cynsegirus,  had  gained  immortal  glory  at  Marathon  (see  p.  394). 


428  THE  PERSIAN  WARS.  [Chap.  XIII. 

back  water  ? "     The  whole  fleet  advanced  to  the  support  of  the 
adventurous  ship,  and  the  action  became  general  along  the  line. 

The  sini])lc  narrative  of  Herodotus  at  once  sets  before  us  the 
nature  of  the  In-ief  but  decisive  combat.  In  courage  the  Persians 
surpassed  themselves,  each  man  feeling  that  the  eye  of  the  king 
was  upon  him.  But  "  as  the  Greeks  fought  in  order  and  kept 
their  line,  while  the  barbarians  were  in  confusion  and  had  no  plan 
in  anything  they  did,  the  issue  of  the  battle  could  scarce  be  other 
tlian  it  was."  Crowded  into  a  narrow  space, — the  front  rank 
retiring  while  the  rear  rank  attempted  to  advance, — the  Persian 
ships  ran  aboard  of  one  another,  oars  and  helms*  were  broken, — 
and  the  vessels  lay  helpless  on  the  water.  The  confusion  soon 
became  a  panic,  aggravated  by  the  want  of  concert  and  confidence 
between  the  various  nations  that  composed  the  fleet.  Some  ran 
down  friendly  ships  in  their  eagerness  to  escape.  Artemisia,  the 
queen  of  lialicarnassus,  whose  good  advice  before  the  battle  had 
been  rejected  by  Xerxes,  having  fought  her  ship  with  distin- 
guished gallantry,  was  escaping  from  the  rout,  hotly  pursued  by 
the  Athenian  Ameinias.  The  ship  of  another  Carian  prince  lay 
full  in  her  course ;  she  charged  it  and  sank  it  with  its  whole  crew. 
Ameinias,  not  knowing  that  the  ship  l)efore  him  was  that  of  the 
obnoxious  woman  who  had  dared  to  flglit  with  men,  and  for  whose 
capture  the  Athenians  had  offered  a  high  reward,t  took  this  act 
as  a  sign  of  desertion  to  the  Greeks,  and  gave  up  the  pursuit. 
Xerxes  noticed  the  deed,  and  his  courtiers,  knowing  Artemisia's 
vessel  by  her  flag,  exclaimed,  "Seest  thou.  Master,  how  well 
Artemisia  fights,  and  how  she  has  just  sunk  a  ship  of  the 
enemy?"  "Yes!"  replied  the  king,  "my  men  have  behaved 
like  women ;  my  women  like  men ! "  In  his  extreme  vexation, 
he  was  ready,  says  Herodotus,  to  find  fault  with  every  one.  Some 
Phoenicians,  whose  ship  had  been  destroyed,  escaped  to  the  shore, 
and  came  before  the  king,  accusing  the  lonians  of  being  to  blame 
for  all.  At  that  very  moment  Xerxes  saw  a  Samothracian  vessel 
which  had  just  sunk  an  Athenian  galley,  hei-self  run  down  by  an 
JEgmct&n.  The  crew  of  the  foundering  ship  plied  their  javelins 
so  well  as  to  clear  the  deck  of  the  vessel  that  had  disabled  theirs, 


*  It  should  be  remembered  that  the  ancient  ships  were  not  steered  by  a  rudder, 
but  by  a  pair  of  oars  with  broad  blades. 

f  Mr.  (Jrotc  points  out  the  similar-  feeling  of  indignation  against  Artemisia  II., 
expressed  by  Demosthenes,  I)e  Rhodlorum  Libcrtate,  chap,  x.,  p.  197.  Herodotus,  as 
himself  a  Ilalicarnassian,  would  have  special  information  respecting  the  exploits  of 
Artemisia. 


B.C.  480.]  XERXES  AFTER  THE  BATTLE.  429 

which  thej  then  took  by  boarding.  Turning  fiercely  on  the  ]*hoe- 
nicians,  Xerxes  ordered  their  heads  to  be  struck  off,  that  they 
might  not  again  cast  the  blame  of  their  own  misconduct  on  braver 
men.  Iso  scene  could  more  truly  exhibit  the  Asiatic  despot, — 
displaying  a  generous  admiration  of  noble  deeds  and  a  wild  sense 
of  justice  amidst 'the  ungovernable  fury  of  his  defeated  hopes,  and 
finding  time  for  an  execution  while  carnage  was  raging  among  his 
men. 

On  the  side  of  the  Greeks,  the  Athenians  and  -Jj^ginetans  were 
the  most  active  in  completing  the  victory.  The  former,  wheeling 
round  from  their  station  on  the  left,  charging,  sinking,  and  cap- 
turing as  they  pressed  on,  drove  the  routed  squadrons  down  the 
strait  into  the  arms  of  the  latter,  who  cut  them  off  as  they 
attempted  to  escape  to  Phalerum.  Nor  did  the  Persian  garrison 
on  the  island  of  Psyttaleia  avail  them  aught ;  for  Aristides  carried 
across  the  hoplites  who  had  been  left  as  a  guard  on  Salamis,  and 
put  all  on  the  island  to  the  sword.  The  loss  in  the  battle  is  not 
stated  by  Herodotus  or  vEschylus :  later  writers  estimate  it  at 
forty  Greek  ships  and  two  hundred  Persian,  besides  those  captured 
with  all  their  crews.  The  loss  of  life  was  still  greater  in  propor- 
tion among  the  Persians,  as  few  of  them  could  swim,  while  the 
Greeks  easily  swam  ashore.  Among  the  noble  Persians  slain  was 
another  brother  of  Xerxes,  in  addition  to  the  two  already  killed 
at  Thermopylee.  Thus  ended  the  first  of  the  three  great  sea- 
fights  which  have  secured  the  liberties  of  the  world :  the  second 
was  the  defeat  of  the  Spanish  Annada :  the  third  the  victory  of 
Trafalgar. 

The  remains  of  the  fleet,  which  had  escaped  to  Phalerum,  still 
far  outnumbered  the  navy  of  the  Greeks.  The  latter  returned  to 
their  camp  at  Salamis,  collected  the  dead  bodies  and  the  wrecks 
that  were  washed  ashore,  and  prepared  to  receive  a  second  attack. 
But  once  more  all  arguments  of  strategy  yielded  in  the  mind  of 
Xerxes  to  personal  considerations.  As  overweening  confidence 
had  hampered  his  advance,  so  now  cowardice  determined  his 
retreat.  He  persuaded  himself  that  his  fleet  was  worthless  and 
distrusted  its  fidelity.  On  the  Phoenicians  especially  he  vented 
his  rage  in  such  reproaches  that  they  consulted  their  safety  by 
a  flight  which  deprived  him  of  the  best  portion  of  his  navy. 
Eemembering  the  fate  which  had  nearly  befallen  his  father  at 
the  Danube,  he  frightened  himself  with  the  suspicion  that  the 
lonians  might  lead  the  fleet  to  the  Hellespont  and  destroy  the 
bridge  of  boats,     l^evertheless,  he  affected  to  make  preparations 


430  THE  PERSIAN  WARS.  [Chap.  XIII. 

for  a  fresh  engagement,  and  even  began  Lotli  a  monnd  and  a 
chain  of  ships  across  the  month  of  the  strait  of  Salamis.  Mardo- 
nius,  however,  was  not  deceived.  How  fully  he  would  be  held 
responsible,  as  the  chief  adviser  of  the  expedition,  he  knew  as  well 
as  if  he  had  heard  the  curses  heaped  upon  his  name  when  the 
second  messenger  of  Xerxes  surprised  the  people  of  Susa  amidst 
their  rejoicings  for  the  fall  of  Athens.  Once  was  enough  to  have 
returned  to  Persia  in  disgrace ;  nor  would  he  yet  despair  of  con- 
quest. So  he  framed  his  advice  to  suit  the  king's  inclination  and 
his  own  ambition.  "  Grieve  not,  Master,"  said  he  "  over  thy  loss. 
Our  hopes  do  not  rest  on  a  few  planks,  but  on  our  brave  steeds 
and  horsemen.  Not  one  of  these  men  will  dare  to  land  and  meet 
our  army.  The  shame  of  defeat  affects  only  the  Phoenicians  and 
Egyptians,  the  Cyprians  and  Cilicians.  Thy  own  faithful  Persians 
are  unbroken  and  undisgraced.  Make  them  not  a  laughing-stock 
to  the  Greeks."  He  advised  Xerxes  to  advance  upon  Pelopon- 
nesus, either  immediately  or  at  his  leisure,  for  it  was  completely 
in  his  power;  or,  if  the  king  were  minded  to  return  home, 
Mardonius  asked  to  be  left  behind  with  300,000  chosen  troops, 
and  he  would  bring  Greece  beneath  his  sway.  This  advice  was 
seconded  by  Artemisia,  who  represented  that  the  whole  danger  would 
fall  upon  Mardonius  and  his  troops,  whom  at  the  worst  Xerxes 
could  aiford  to  lose ;  while,  so  long  as  his  own  person  and  throne 
were  safe,  he  might  yet  cause  the  Greeks  to  fight  many  a  battle 
for  their  freedom.  N^or  did  she  omit  to  flatter  the  king  with  the 
idea  that  he  would  now  return  in  triumph,  since  the  chief  purpose 
of  his  expedition  was  fulfilled  by  the  destruction  of  Athens.  This 
advice  was  the  more  acceptable  to  Xerxes  as  it  exactly  reflected 
his  own  thoughts.  "  I  for  my  part,"  says  Herodotus,  "  do  not 
believe  that  he  would  have  remained,  had  all  his  counsellors,  both 
men  and  women,  united  to  urge  his  stay,  so  great  was  the  alarm 
he  felt."  The  fleet  were  despatched  towards  the  Hellespont,  to 
guard  the  bridges  against  the  king's  return.  Mardonius  was 
ordered  to  choose  his  troops  and  make  his  promise  good ;  and 
Xerxes  prepared  to  return  at  leisure  with  the  bulk  of  the  immense 
army,  which  had  achieved  nothing  save  the  dear-bought  victory  of 
Thermopylae. 

The  Greeks  pursued  the  retiring  fleet  as  far  as  the  island  of 
Andros.  Here  a  council  was  held,  at  which  Themistocles,  like 
Miltiades  at  the  Danube,  advised  that  they  should  press  forward  to 
the  Hellespont  and  break  down  the  bridges.  Eurybiades  pointed 
out  the  difference  between  shutting  an  enemy  out,  to  be  destroyed 


B.C.  480.]  EETEEAT  OF  XERXES.  431 

by  the  barbarians,  and  shutting  in  an  army  powerful  enough  to 
conquer  Europe,  when  driven  to  action  by  necessity.*  Themis- 
tocles  yielded,  and  urged  the  same  advice  upon  the  Athenians,  who 
were  eager  for  the  pursuit,  promising  that  they  should  sail  in  the 
spring  to  the  Hellespont  and  Ionia.  Then  he  sent  his  trusty 
messenger  for  the  second  time  to  Xerxes,  who  was  still  in  Attica, 
to  inform  him  that  he  had  dissuaded  the  Greeks  from  destroying 
the  bridges  over  the  Hellespont.  The  fleet  did  not  return  to 
Salamis  till  Themistocles  had  raised  contributions  on  some  of  the 
islands  without  the  knowledge  of  the  other  commanders. 

Meanwhile  Xerxes  retired  with  his  land  forces  into  Thessaly, 
where  Mardonius  remained  to  winter,  having  selected  his  300,000 
men  from  the  best  troops  of  the  empire,  Persians,  Modes,  Sacse, 
Bactrians,  and  Indians.  The  rest  retraced  their  steps  through 
Macedonia  and  Thrace,  suffering  severely  from  famine  and  disease. 
The  magazines  had  been  used  up  during  their  advance ;  the  harvest 
lately  gathered  in  was  soon  exhausted,  and  the  winter  was  rapidly 
approaching,  f  The  march  to  the  Hellespont  occupied  five-and- 
forty  days.  The  bridges  which  had  caused  the  king  so  much 
anxiety,  had  been  swept  away  by  a  storm,  and  the  army  was  carried 
over  the  Hellespont  in  ships.  That  Xerxes  himself  crossed  in  a 
fishing  boat,  as  later  writers  state,  is  a  circumstance  not  needed  to 
point  the  contrast  between  the  pomp  of  his  advance  and  the  humi- 
liation of  his  return.  He  reached  Sardis  just  eight  months  after 
the  premature  triumph  of  his  departure.  He  had  marched  forth 
in  the  prime  of  youth  and  manly  beauty,  buoyant  in  hope,  and  not 
devoid  of  generous  impulses,  to  achieve  a  conquest  and  exact  a 
vengeance  demanded  by  filial  piety  as  well  as  ambition ;  he 
returned  disgusted  with  all  active  enterprise,  to  bury  himself 
amidst  those  intrigues  of  the  court  and  seraglio  at  Susa,  of  which 
we  have  so  vivid  a  picture  in  the  Book  of  Esther.  :j:  He  perished 
fifteen  years  afterwards  by  a  conspiracy  of  his  chief  officers  (b.c. 
465).  His  retreat  may  be  regarded  as  the  virtual  decision  of  that 
great  conflict  between  eastern  despotism  and  European  liberty, 
which  forms  one  of  the  most  important  chapters  in  the  liistory  of 
the  world. 

*  The  obvious  force  of  this  argument  suggests  that  Themistocles  only  raised  the 
question  in  order  to  take  credit  with  the  king  for  the  ultimate  decision. 

f  Respecting  the  exaggerated  accounts,  which  Herodotus  felt  bound  to  reject,  see 
the  criticisms  of  Mr.  Grote,  History  of  Greece^  vol.  v.,  pp.  190,  191. 

X  Respecting  the  identity  of  Xerxes  with  the  Ahasuerus  of  the  book  of  Esther,  and 
the  distinction  between  Esther  and  Amestris  the  cruel  queen  of  Xerxes,  see  the 
articles  Ahasuerus  and  Esther,  in  Smith's  Dictionanj  of  the  Bible. 


432  THE  TERSIAN  WARS.  [Chap.  XIII. 

Meanwhile  a  contest  liardl  j  less  momentous  had  been  decided  on 
the  plains  of  Sicily.  While  the  hosts  of  Xerxes  were  poured  into 
Hellas  on  the  north-east,  she  was  assailed  on  the  south-west  by  a 
more  active  and  perhaps  more  dangerous  enemy.  We  cannot  now 
stay  to  discuss  the  great  question — w^hicli  would  have  been  more 
fatal  to  the  liberties  of  Europe,  and  the  world,  the  despotism  of 
Persia,  or  the  tyranny  of  the  commercial  oligarchy  of  Carthage. 
The  rise  of  that  republic  will  be  more  conveniently  related  when 
we  come  to -speak  of  her  wars  with  Home.  She  now  appears  in 
her  full  strength,  contending  with  the  Greek  colonies  for  the  pos- 
session of  Sicily.  We  have  already  seen  that  the  govenunent  of 
tyrants  was  set  up  in  those  colonies  about  the  epoch  of  the  Pei^ian 
Wars.  Syracuse,  one  of  the  last  to  admit  such  a  government,  was 
raised  by  her  new  rulers  to  a  place  among  the  most  powerful  states 
in  Greece.  It  was  in  the  interval  between  the  battles  of  Marathon 
and  Salamis  (b.c.  485),  that  Gelo,  the  tyrant  of  Gela,  then  by  far 
the  most  powerful  of  the  Sicilian  cities,  was  applied  to  by  the 
exiles  of  the  aristocratic  party  at  Syracuse,  to  restore  them.  He 
took  the  city  without  a  blow,  and  at  once  assumed  despotic  power, 
resigning  Gela  to  his  brother  Hiero.  But  he  altogether  changed 
the  relative  importance  of  the  two  cities,  by  removing  half  the 
inhabitants  of  Gela,  and  all  those  of  Camarina,  to  people  the  new 
quarter,  Achradina,  which  he  added  to  Syracuse.*  He  soon 
obtained  what  may  be  truly  described  as  an  imperial  power  over 
the  Greek  cities  of  Sicily ;  and  the  account  of  his  resources  at  the 
time  of  the  invasion  of  Xerxes,  even  if  exaggerated,  confinns  the 
statement  of  Herodotus,  that  no  other  Hellenic  power  could  bear 
comparison  with  that  of  Gelo.  He  felt  himself  strong  enough  to 
attempt  the  reduction  of  the  whole  island  beneath  his  rule. 
Thereupon  commenced  "that  series  of  contests  between  the 
Pho3nicians  and  Greeks  in  Sicily,  which,  like  the  struggles 
between  the  Saracens  and  Normans  in  the  eleventh  and  twelfth 
centuries  after  the  Christian  era,  were  destined  to  detennine 
whether  the  island  should  be  a  part  of  Africa  or  a  part  of  Europe, 
and  which  were  only  terminated,  after  the  lapse  of  three  centuries, 
by  the  absorption  of  both  into  the  vast  bosom  of  Pome."  f  The 
first  collision  had  taken  place  about  b.c.  509,  when  the  attempt  of 
the  Spartan  prince,  Dorieus,  to  settle  a  colony  in  the  parts  already 
occupied  by  the  non-Hellenic  inliabitants  of  Eryx  and  Egesta,  was 

*  We  shall  have  to  notice  the  topography  of  Syracuse  more  particularly  in  the  fol- 
lowing chapter,  in  connection  with  the  siege  by  the  Athenians, 
f  Grote,  History  of  Greece,  vol.,  v.,  p.  277. 


B.C.  480.]  BATTLE  OF  HIMERA.  433 

defeated  by  the  aid  of  the  Carthaginians.  Gelo  now  undertook 
to  avenge  the  death  of  Dorieus,  and  to  expel  the  Carthaginians 
and  their  allies  from  the  north-west  corner  of  the  island.  The  war 
had  lasted  for  some  time,  when  the  Carthaginians  resolved  to  take 
advantage  of  the  intended  invasion  of  Greece  ;  so  that  just  when 
Gelo  was  invited  by  the  Athenian  and  Spartan  envoys  to  aid  in 
their  defence,  he  was  threatened  with  an  attack  in  Sicily. 

We  can  scarcely  doubt  that  this  attack  was  arranged  between 
Xerxes  and  the  Carthaginians,  like  the  alliance  of  Carthage  with 
Antiochus  the  Great  against  Rome ;  only  on  this  occasion  the  allies 
timed  their  movements  with  far  better  concert."  In  the  same 
spring  that  witnessed  the  advance  of  Xerxes  from  Sardis,  a  great 
armament  sailed  from  Cai*thage  for  Sicily,  under  Hamilcar,  the 
Suffes  or  general,  with  the  avowed  purpose  of  restoring  Terillus, 
the  exiled  tyrant  of  Himera ;  for  there  was  a  Punic  faction  among 
the  Sicilian  Greeks,  just  as  there  was  a  Medizing  party  in  the 
mother  country.  Ilamilcar's  navy  was  even  more  numerous  than 
that  of  Xerxes,  consisting  of  3000  ships  of  war,  besides  transports. 
The  land  force  consisted  of  300,000  infantry,  the  shij)S  that  carried 
the  cavalry  and  war-chariots  having  been  dispersed  by  a  storm. 
The  list  of  nations  enumerated  by  Herodotus  as  composing  this 
army  shows  that  the  Punic  republic  had  already  begun  the  sys- 
tem of  dependence  on  mercenary  forces.  There  were  Phoenicians, 
Libyans,  Iberians  (from  Spain),  Ligurians  (from  the  Gulfs  of 
Lyon  and  Genoa),  Helisyci  (perhaps  Yolscians),  Sardinians,  and 
Corsicans.  They  disembarked  at  Panormus  {Palermo),  and 
marched  forward  to  besiege  Himera,  which  prepared  for  an  obsti- 
nate defence.  Gelo  gathered  his  whole  army  for  its  relief,  con- 
sisting only  of  50,000  foot  and  500  horse.  But  an  opportune 
accident  enabled  him  to  throw  confusion  into  the  camp  of  the 
enemy.  Having  intercepted  a  letter  from  Selinus,  promising  to 
send  a  body  of  cavalry  to  the  aid  of  Hamilcar,  Gelo  instructed  a 
party  of  his  own  horse  to  personate  this  reinforcement.  They  were 
received  into  the  Carthaginian  camp,  where  they  at  once  caused 
a  disorder,  wliich  was  doubtless  aggravated  by  mutual  distrust 
among  the  mingled  nations.  Gelo  chose  this  moment  for  his  main 
attack.  A  fierce  and  bloody  battle  raged  from  sun-rise  till  late  in 
the  afternoon,  ending  in  the  total  rout  of  the  Carthaginians,  who 
are  said  to  have  left  150,000  men  upon  the  field.     Hamilcar  him- 

*  Such  an  understanding,  probable  in  itself,  is  said  by  the  historian  Ephorus  to 
have  existed.  The  negotiations  may  have  been  conducted  by  the  Phoenicians  on 
behalf  of  Xerxes. 

VOL.  I.— 28 


434  THE  PERSIAN  WARS.  [Chap.  XIII. 

self  was  among  the  slain,  and  romantic  stories  were  related  con- 
cerning the  manner  of  his  death.*  The  search  of  Gelo  for  his 
body  was  in  vain.  The  Greeks  erected  a  monument  to  him  on 
the  field  of  battle ;  and  on  that  very  monument  his  grandson, 
Hannibal,  offered  3000  prisoners  from  Himera  (b.c.  409).  The 
rest  of  the  Carthaginian  army,  for  the  most  part,  fled  into  the 
mountains,  and  were  made  prisoners  by  the  Agrigentines,  who 
employed  them  on  the  great  works  of  art  wdiich  adorned  their 
city.  The  other  cities  subject  to  Gelo,  and  especially  Syracuse, 
had  their  share  of  these  public  slaves,  who  worked  in  chains,  either 
for  the  state,  or  for  masters  to  whom  they  were  let  out.  The 
battle  of  Ilimera  was  fought,  according  to  Herodotus,  on  the  same 
day  as  that  of  Salamis. 

The  easy  terms  of  peace  which  the  Carthaginians  obtained  firom 
Gelo,  and  the  alarm  caused  by  their  aggressions  on  the  coasts  of 
Italy  a  few  years  later,  raise  doubts  whether  their  losses  at  Himera 
are  not  greatly  exaggerated.  At  all  events,  their  defeat  was 
followed  by  a  period  of  high  prosperity  among  the  Greek  states 
of  Sicily.  Gelo  died  two  years  after  his  great  victory  (b.c.  478), 
and  was  honoured  with  obsequies  and  monuments  on  the  most 
magnificent  scale.  His  brother  Hiero,  the  patron  of  ^schylus, 
Simonides,  and  Pindar,  reigned  with  still  greater  splendour  ;  and 
while  gaining  sea-fights  against  the  Tyrrhenians  and  Carthaginians, 
was  one  of  the  most  distinguished  victors  at  Olympia  (b.c.  478 — 
467) ;  but  his  noble  qualities  were  sullied  by  the  innate  vices  of 
despotism ;  and  these  vices,  displayed  without  restraint  by  his 
brother  and  successor  Thrasybulus,  provoked  a  rebellion,  in  which 
Syracuse  was  aided  by  the  other  cities.  Thrasybulus  was  expelled ; 
the  dynasty  of  Gelo  was  overthrown ;  and  the  epoch  which  marks 
the  issue  of  the  Persian  Wars  is  also  that  of  the  establishment  of 
popular  governments  in  all  the  Sicilian  cities  (b.c.  465).  This 
revolution  was  not  eft'ected  without  angry  dissensions,  of  which  we 
shall  see  the  bitter  fruits  in  the  following  chapter. 

Meanwhile  the  Greeks  of  the  mother  country  had  still  to  expel 
the  Persians  from  their  soil.  It  is  said  that,  before  Xerxes  left 
Thessaly,  the  Lacedaemonians  sent  a  herald  to  demand  of  him 
satisfaction  for  the  death  of  their  king  and  fellow-citizens  slain 
by  him  at  Thermopylte.  Xerxes  laughed,  and  for  some  time 
gave  no  rej)ly.  At  length,  pointing  to  Mardonius,  he  said,  "  Mar- 
donius   here   shall   give   them   the   satisfaction  they  deserve  to 

*  One  was  that,  when  he  saw  that  all  was  lost,  he  cast  himself  as  a  burnt  offering 
into  the  fire  in  which  he  had  been  sacrificing;  whole  victims. 


B.C.  479.]  EEJOICINGS  FOR  SALAMIS.  435 

get."  And  well  did  tliey  take  it  on  tlie  field  of  Platfca.  But  first 
their  glorious  victory  claimed  rejoicings  and  rewards.  Sophocles, 
selected  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  for  his  beauty,  to  lead  the  chorus  of 
youths  around  the  trophy  erected  by  the  Athenians  on  Sal  amis  to 
celebrate  the  victory  which  ^schylus  soon  after  represented  on 
the  stage,  may  be  taken  as  a  type  of  the  outburst  of  intellectual 
life  which  was  among  the  most  precious  fruits  of  the  freedom  won 
that  day.  The  highest  rank  in  honour,  and  the  greatest  share  of 
the  booty,  were  awarded  to  the  ^ginetans ;  the  second  to  the 
Athenians.  Three  Phoenician  triremes  were  dedicated,  as  the  first 
fruits  of  the  spoil,  to  Ajax  at  Salamis,  to  Athena  at  Sunium,  and 
to  Poseidon  at  the  Isthmus,  and  splendid  presents  were  sent  to 
Delphi.  For  personal  valour  the  first  place  was  awarded  to  the 
-dEginetan  Polycritus  and  the  Athenians  Eumenes  and  Ameinias. 
The  contest  for  the  first  and  second  prizes  of  skill  and  wisdom 
among  the  commanders  had  an  issue  which  has  become  proverbial 
as  a  test  of  merit.  "When  the  votes  were  collected,  each  of  the 
chiefs  was  found  to  have  claimed  the  first  prize  for  himself,  but 
all  had  awarded  the  second  to  Themistocles — a  certain  proof  that 
he  really  merited  the  first.  Nevertheless,  as  no  first  prize  was 
awarded,  the  second  could  not  be  bestowed.  But,  on  a  visit  to 
Sparta  soon  afterwards,  he  received  honours  such  as  had  never 
before  been  paid  by  that  jealous  republic  to  a  foreigner.  "While 
Eurybiades  was  rewarded  by  his  fellow-citizens  with  a  crown  of 
olive,  a  crown  precisely  similar  was  voted  to  Themistocles,  together 
with  a  splendid  chariot,  as  a  special  j^rize  for  sagacity ;  and, 
on  his  departure,  he  was  escorted  as  far  as  the  frontier  of  Tegea  by 
three  hundred  chosen  youths.  We  shall  soon  see  the  important 
results  of  the  relations  thus  established  between  Themistocles  and 
Lacedoemon. 

Meanwhile  Mardonius  was  wintering  in  Thessaly  with  his  whole 
forces,  except  60,000  men  who  had  been  detached  under  Artabazus 
to  escort  Xerxes  on  his  march  through  Thrace.  All  IS^orthern 
Greece  remained  faithful  to  the  Persian  king,  except  the  Phocians, 
who  were  too  weak  to  make  any  movement.  The  only  open  revolt 
was  at  a  spot  which  has  a  most  interesting  relation  to  the  subse- 
quent history  of  Greece — the  Chalcidic  peninsular  in  the  north-west 
corner  of  the  ^gsean.  The  Corinthian  colony  of  Potida3a,  on  the 
isthmus  of  Pallene,  threw  oif  the  Persian  yoke,  and  solicited  the 
neighbouring  city  of  Olynthus  to  join  in  the  rebellion.  Artabazus, 
on  his  return  from  the  Hellespont,  easily  reduced  Olynthus,  exter- 
minated its  mixed  population,  and  colonized  it  with  Greeks  from 


43G  THE  PERSIxVX  WARS.  [Chap.  XIII. 

Clialeis.  We  sliall  ere  long  see  how  Olyiitlms  filled  its  new  place 
as  an  Hellenic  state.  But  the  position  of  Potidtea  proved  impreg- 
nable, defended  as  it  was  on  both  sides  by  walls  built  across  the 
narrow  isthmus ;  and  after  wasting  three  months  before  it,  Arta- 
bazus  rejoined  Mardonius. 

The  Persian  commander  opened  the  campaign  of  B.C.  479  by 
advancing  into  Bosotia ;  but,  before  commencing  active  operations 
he  made  an  attempt  to  detach  the  Athenians  from  the  common 
cause  through  the  mediation  of  Alexander,  king  of  Macedonia. 
He  offered  them  the  active  friendship  of  the  great  king,  reparation 
for  the  damage  done  in  Attica,  and  a  large  accession  of  temtory. 
The  Macedonian  prince  found  the  Athenians  amidst  the  ruins  of 
their  city,  suflfering  from  the  loss  of  their  last  harvest  and  destitute 
of  seed  for  the  new  year.  The  Lacedaemonians  sent  envoys, 
entreating  them  to  resist  the  tempting  offers,  and  promising 
relief  for  their  present  distress.  The  Athenians  dismissed  Alex- 
ander with  the  message  that  never,  till  the  sun  should  chang-e  his 
course,  would  they  become  the  friends  of  Xerxes ;  and  they  assured 
the  Lacedcemonians  that  so  long  as  a  single  Athenian  survived, 
no  alliance  should  be  made  with  Persia.  Declining  their  offers  of 
j)resent  aid,  they  pressed  them  to  send  an  army  into  Bceotia  for  the 
common  defence  against  Mardonius.  This  the  Spartan  envoys 
promised ;  but  they  had  no  sooner  returned  home,  than  the  Pelo- 
ponnesians  concentrated  all  their  force  on  completing  the  defences 
of  the  Isthmus ;  and  the  Athenians  recrossed  the  strait  to  Salamis, 
leaving  their  country  a  second  time  to  the  mercy  of  the  Persians 
(May-June,  e.g.  479).  Even  then,  though  indignant  at  the  selfish 
policy  of  their  allies,  they  spurned  the  renewed  oflers  made  by 
Mardonius  from  Athens,  which  he  had  reoccupied  without  injuring 
the  country  or  the  new  buildings  of  the  city.  A  single  senator 
who  dared  to  counsel  submission  was  stoned  to  death  by  the 
common  impulse  of  his  colleagues  and  the  people,  while  the 
Athenian  women  stoned  his  wife  and  children.  But  the  con- 
sciousness of  wrong  infused  a  wholesome  dread  into  the  minds  of 
the  Spartans,  lest  Athens  should  after  all  consult  her  own  safety ; 
and  then  her  fleet  would  have  rendered  useless  the  defences  of  the 
[sthmus.  They  at  length  posted  a  powerful  aiiny  at  the  Isthmus, 
under  their  king  Paiisanias,  ready  to  advance  into  Bceotia,  to  which 
country  Mardonius  had  retired,  after  once  more  ravaging  Attica. 
The  Persian  chose  his  position  in  the  plain  of  the  Asopus,  as  fitted 
for  his  cavalry,  in  a  friendly  country,  and  near  his  magazines  at 
Thebes ;  and  he  fortified  an  immense  camp  between  Platsea  and 


B.C.  479.]  ADVANCE  OF  THE  GREEK  AEMY.  437 

Eiytbrse.  His  forces  appeared  eqiTal  to  tlie  task  he  liad  under- 
taken ;  but  thej  were  demoralized  by  the  king's  retreat,  and 
Artabazus  was  jealous  of  Mardonius.  The  feeling  of  the  Persians 
is  attested  by  a  very  interesting  anecdote,  which  Herodotus  heard 
from  a  person  who  was  present  at  a  banquet  given  by  the  Theban 
commander  to  Mardonius.  A  Persian,  who  was  placed  with  him  on 
the  same  couch,  began  to  lament  that  of  all  his  countrymen  feasting 
there  or  lying  in  the  neighbouring  camp,  but  few  would  soon  survive. 
And,  on  being  asked  why  he  did  not  utter  this  conviction  to  Mar- 
donius, the  Persian  replied,  that  men  could  not  avert  what  God 
had  decreed,  nor  would  those  doomed  to  destruction  believe  the 
warning  of  their  fate ;  adding  the  memorable  words,  so  often 
repeated  by  those  who  would  benefit  men  in  spite  of  themselves  : 
"  The  worst  of  human  pains  is  this,  to  have  a  mind  full  of  counsel, 
and  yet  the  power  to  eifect  nothing."  *  Among  the  Medizing 
Greeks,  only  the  Thessalians  and  Boeotians  were  staunch ;  the 
Phocians  were  held  in  such  suspicion,  that,  if  we  may  trust  the 
story  so  picturesquely  related  by  Herodotus,  they  were  actually 
surrounded  by  the  Persian  cavalry,  with  the  intention  of  mas- 
sacring them,  when  their  firm  attitude  induced  Mardonius  to 
change  his  mind. 

At  length  the  Spartans  and  their  allies  advanced  from  the 
Isthmus  to  the  plain  of  Eleusis,  where  they  were  joined  by  the 
Athenians  and  Platasans,  who  crossed  over  from  Salamis  under 
Aristides.  They  numbered  5000  Spartans,  5000  Corinthians, 
3000  Sicyonians,  3000  Megarians,  8000  Athenians,  and  600 
Platseans.  The  contingents  of  other  states  made  up  a  total  of 
38,700  heavy-armed  soldiers.  There  were  no  cavalry,  and  few 
archers,  Herodotus  reckons  the  Helots  in  attendance  on  the 
Spartans  at  35,000,  and  the  other  light-armed  troops  at  34,500, 
besides  1800  Thespians  so  badly  armed  as  to  be  reckoned  only  in 
this  class.     The  entire  Greek  army  amounted  to  110,000  men. 

Pausanias  led  them  from  Eleusis  over  the  ridge  of  Cithseron, 
and  hung  upon  its  northern  declivity  near  Erythrse,  overlookiiig 
the  camp  of  Mardonius,  without  venturing  into  the  plain.  An 
attack  of  the  Persian  cavalry,  under  Masistius,  a  chief  whose 
courage  equalled  his  splendid  appearance,  was  repulsed  by  the 

*  Herod,  ix.  16.  kx9i(TT7j  6e  oS'vvt/  earl  tuv  ev  avOpuTzoKXC  a'vTTj,  1:0X7.0.  (ppoviovra 
fij]6evbc  Kparieiv.  Those  familiar  with  Dr.  Arnold's  Letters  will  recognise  the  quo- 
tation. Mr.  Grote  remarks  on  the  strong  impression  we  receive  of  the  sources  of 
information  possessed  by  Herodotus,  when  we  find  him  in  direct  communication  with 
a  person  who  had  feasted  with  Mardonius. 


4.38 


THE  TERSIAN  WARS. 


[Chap.  XIU. 


Megarians  and  Athenians;  and  the  deatli  of  the  commander, 
whose  body  the  Persians  strove  fiercely  but  in  vain  to  recover, 
seemed  to  give  an  omen  of  the  coming  victory.  The  wailings  of 
the  Persians  wore  ecliocd  from  the  surrounding  hills,  and  their 
whole  army  assumed  the  signs  of  mourning,  while  the  Greeks 


^(.rmmmm 


BATTLE    OF    PLAT^A. 


«.  Persians. 
h.  Athenians. 

c.  Lacedaemonians. 

d.  Various     Greek 

allies. 


II. 


First  Position  occu- 
pied by  the  oppos^ 
ing  armies. 

Second  Position. 


III.  Third  Position. 


A.  Road  from  Plata?a  to  Thebes. 

B.  Road  from  Megara  to  Thebes. 

C.  Persian  camp. 

D.  Erythne. 

E.  IlysiiE. 


paraded  the  body  through  their  ranks  in  a  cart.  Thus  encouraged, 
and  finding  his  position  on  the  high  ground  short  of  water,  Pausa- 
nias  assumed  the  defensive  by  descending  into  the  plain.  The 
nature  of  his  movement,  and  the  consequent  change  of  position 
eftected  by  Mardonius,  will  be  at  once  understood  from  the  plan. 


B.C.  479.]  BATTLE  OF  PLATTE  A.  439 

The  two  armies  now  faced  each  other  on  opposite  sides  of  the 
Asopus.  The  right  of  the  Greeks  was  held  by  the  Lacedaemonians, 
the  left  by  the  Athenians,  the  centre  by  the  troops  of  the  other 
states.  Mardonius  deviated  from  the  usual  Persian  array,  which 
made  the  centre  the  post  of  honour,  and  himself  took  the  left, 
with  the  chosen  Persians  and  Medes,  opposite  to  the  Lacedaemo- 
nians. On  the  right  he  set  his  Macedonians  and  Greeks  against 
the  Athenians ;  the  rest  of  the  Asiatic  soldiers  filled  the  centre. 
Both  sides  hesitated  to  begin  the  encounter ;  and  Mardonius  used 
the  pause  for  intrigues  with  some  of  the  wealthier  Athenians, 
which  were  firmly  repressed  by  Aristides,  wdiile  the  Persian  cav- 
alry harassed  the  rear  of  the  Greeks  and  cut  oft'  their  supplies. 
But  after  two  days  Mardonius  became  impatient,  and,  against 
the  advice  of  Artabazus  and  the  Thebans,  he  prepared  for  a  deci- 
sive battle.  During  the  night  his  intention  was  communicated  to 
Aristides  by  Alexander  the  Macedonian,  who  doubtless  felt  it  high 
time  to  make  his  peace  with  the  Greeks.  On  hearing  the  news, 
Pausanias  took  the  step,  most  extraordinary  for  a  Spartan  general, 
of  exchanging  places  between  the  Lacedaemonians  and  the  Athe- 
nians, on  the  ground  that  the  latter  had  already  met  and  van- 
quished the  formidable  Persians,  whom  the  Spartans  had  not  yet 
encountered.  The  sign  of  alarm  was  not  lost  upon  Mardonius, 
who  forthwith  attempted  to  shake  the  Greek  aiTay  by  repeated 
charges  of  cavalry,  and  not  without  success.*  Thus  harassed, 
Pausanias  decided  on  withdrawing,  during  the  night,  into  the 
so-called  "  Island,"  between  two  branches  of  the  river  Oeroe, 
which  flow  down  from  Cithaeron.  The  confusion  attendant  upon 
a  night  march  over  unknown  ground,  and  especially  the  obstinacy 
of  one  of  the  Spartan  captains,  who  long  refused  to  retreat  when 
in .  presence  of  an  enemy,  caused  such  disorder  and  delay,  that, 
while  the  Greek  centre  overshot  their  mark  and  retreated  quite  to 
Plataja,  the  Lacedaemonians  and  Tegeans  were  overtaken  by  the 
Persians  before  they  had  come  up  with  the  Athenians.  The 
Persian  archers,  fonning  a  breastwork  of  their  wicker  shields, 
poured  in  a  galling  flight  of  arrows,  which  Pausanias  was  obliged 
to  bear  till  the  victims,  which  even  at  this  crisis  he  would  not 
omit  to  ofter,  should  become  favourable.  At  length  his  prayer  to 
Hera,  whose  temple  stood  in  full  view  on  the  citadel  of  Plat£ea, 
was  answered  by  a  favourable  omen,  which  was  anticipated  by  the 

*  We  can  hardly  decide  whether  the  story  of  his  challenge  to  a  single  combat  with 
champions  of  equal  numbers — Lacedaemonians  against  Persians — is  anything  more  than 
a  Homeric  embeUishment.     See  Herod,  ix.  '71. 


410  Tin;  i'ERSTAN  WiMiS.  [CirAi-.  XIII. 

onset  of  I  lie  'l\'^-('!UiH.  "i'lic  Lucodii'iiioiiiuiis  implied  to  tlicir  Hiip- 
]»oi-t;  lli(j  frail  hrcustwork  went  down  bofoi-o  tlic  cliarf^'o,  tind  the 
Porsiiiim  ii<i;!iiii  loiiiid  tlit'insclvort,  iiB  at  Manitlioii  and  Tli(!niio])ylui. 
eii^ji^cd  ill  clortc  conlli(;t  Avitli  the  Berried  plialaiix,  loii^  spears, 
and  I'ldl  iinnoiirof  tlie  (ireelcrt.  They  fou^lit  with  even  more  than 
llicir  woiitiil  lii-avery,  <^raspin/,^  tlie  K])ears  and  hrealcin«^  tlieni  witli 
their  hands.  Mardouiiis,  who  douhtlerts  felt  tliat  there  wart  no 
return  lor  liini  to  I^ernia  it'  lie  hjst  this  iiehl,  wart  con8i)ieuoiirt  in 
I'roid,  on  a  w  hit(!  eharj;-(?r,  till  he  wan  nlain  by  a  Spartan,  wlioBC 
iiain(^  was  curiously  iitted  to  Ids  exploit.*  ^Nearly  all  his  body- 
<;iiard,  of  a  thousand  chosen  men,  died  around  him  ;  the  wearied 
I'ersians  gave  way  when  they  saw  tlieir  leader  fall  ;  the  other 
Asiatics  turned  their  backs  without  a  blow  ;  and  the  routed  army 
iled  Ibr  shelter  to  their  palisaded  eanij)  behind  the  Asopus.  One 
division  of  1(1,000  I'cM'sians,  under  Ai"taba/us,  had  heen  left 
behind  in  llu!  rapid  advance  of  Mardonius,  and  look  no  [)art 
in  llie  hallle.  Ailabazus,  after  trying  in  vain  to  moderate  the 
rashness  of  his  connnander,  had  formed  his  division  as  a  re- 
Bcrve,  and  was  advancing  to  the  scene  of  action,  when  ho  saw 
the  total  rout  of  the  main  army,  lie  immediately  retreated,  and, 
passing  by  the  (^ainp  and  Thebes  itself,  began  his  march  hack 
to  Asia. 

Meanwhile  the;  Athenians  and  IMatanms,  summoned  hy  a  hasty 
message  fi'oni  I'ausanias,  came  np  on  the  Spartan  lett,  and  encoun- 
tered the  Thebans  and  I'reotians.  Those  of  the  CJ  reeks  wlio  had 
made  the  greatest  sacriiices  for  their  country  stood  front  to  front 
with  those  who  had  most  comjdetely  sold  themselves  to  the  invader ; 
and,  besides,  their  animosity  was  inihimed  by  old  domestic  feuds. 
After  a  fierce  contest,  the  J>(eotians  were  forced  back  to  Thebes, 
their  retreat  being  covered  by  their  cavalry.  The  other  Medi/.ing 
Greeks  kept  aloof  from  tlie  fight,  and  iled  as  soon  as  they  saw  the 
defeat  of  the  Thebans.  Indeed  it  is  renuirkable  how  small  a 
l)ortion  of  the  two  arndes  was  engaged  on  the  field  of  Plata^a. 
The  battle  was  really  decided  by  "  the  Dorian  spear  "  f  in  the 
conflict  of  the  Spartans  and  Tegeans  with  the  Modes  and  Persians ; 
on  the  left  it  was  confined  to  the  Athenians  and  IJcx-otians.  The 
other  contingents  of  the  (j  reek  army  were  far  in  the  rear;  the  rest 
of  the  Asiatics  iled  without  a  stroke.  The  victory  w.as  ibllowed 
np  by  the  stornnng  of  the  fortified  camp  with  a  slaughter  which 
must  have  been  tridy  iearful,  to  give  even  a  colour  of  truth  to  the 

*  AcimncHtus,  sif^nifyinf;  ever  to  be  remembered. 


B.C.  479.]  PliOCiEEDINCiS    OF   Till':    FJ.KKTS.  441 

Btatcincut  that,  out  of  tlio  800,000  soldicM-s  of'Mardouins  only  3000 
survived,  besidcrt  tliose  Avlio  Iiad  left  tlio  tield  witli  Artahazus.* 
Herodotus  calculates  tlio  (Ireck  loss  (doubtless  of  lio[)litcs  ouly) 
with  the  precision  of  a  muster-roll : — 91  Spartans,  1(1  Teiijeans,  and 
52  Athenians  ! f  Ten  days  were  occupied  in  huryinpj  the  dead  and 
dividiiii;-  the  spoil,  which  contained  riches  such  as  the  Greeks  had 
never  seen  before.  I'he  body  of  Mardonius  was  stolen  away  and 
buried, — it  was  never  ccrtaiidy  known  by  Avhom, — after  T*ausanias 
had  indignantly  rcpeihid  a  suj>;^estion  to  i-etaliate  upon  it  the 
insults  of  Xerxes  to  the  cor])sc  of  Leonidas.  The  (Jretik  army 
then  mandied  a{»;ainst  Thebes,  to  punish  th(!  Med izini>;  leaders,  who 
were  pjiven  \i\}  after  a  siege  of  twenty  days,  and  were  ]uit  to  death 
by  Pausanias.  I'latiiRa,  close  to  which  the  battle  had  l)ecn  fought, 
and  whose  (ritizens  had  deserved  so  well  of  their  country,  w.as 
invested  with  a  sacred  character.  Slu;  was  linally  released  from 
the  ])oliti('al  aseendaiicy  which  M'hcibes  had  so  long  claimed  over 
lier,  and  tlu^,  inviolability  of  her  territory  was  guaranteed  by  an 
oath,  on  I  Ik;  (condition  of  her  celebrating  the  Feast  of  Liberty  (the 
J£Lei(t/i('riti)  with  ganu'S  every  four  years.  To  maintain  the;  liberty 
thus  commemoratcid,  the  allies  ratified  1)y  another  oath  a  perma- 
nent league  for  the  connnon  defence  against  Persia.  Th<'y  agreed 
to  contribute  fixed  contingents  towards  a  force  of  10,000  hoplites, 
lOOO  cavalry,  and  100  triremes;  and  an  annual  meeting  of  (le]ui- 
ties  from  each  state  was  appointed  to  bo  held  at  Plata^a.  This 
measure,  as  much  ref|uircd  in  the  ])rescnt  state  of  things  as  it  was 
patriotic  in  its  principle,  is  ascribi'd  to  Aristides.  AV^e  shall  soon 
sec  how  both  this  scheme  and  the  inviolability  of  Plataia  were 
destroyed  in  the  fatal  rivalry  of  Athens  and  Lacedicmon. 

The  soil  of  (Jreecc  itself  was  now  free  from  the  invader;  and 
another  triumi)li  had  been  gained  at  the  same  time  on  the  coast  of 
Asia.  The  Persian  fleet,  after  conveying  Xerxes  and  his  army 
across  the  Hellespont,  wint(!red  at  (vynu;  and  Samos,  and  assend)led 
at  the  latter  station,  400  triremes  strong,  in  the  spring  of  b.o.  479. 
The  Greek  srpiadron  of  1 10  ships'  nnistered  at  ^T^^gina,  and  seemed 
bent  on  an  active  (rampaign.  ]<]nvoys  I'rom  (Miios,  Sanu)S,  and 
other  Ionian  stales,  ])romised  that  the  colonics  would  revolt  as 
soon  as  the  (Jreeian  sails  were  seen  upon  their  shores.  P>ut  a  voy- 
age across  the  yl]ga'an,  where  the  flag  of  I'ersia  had  so  long  flouted 

*  ll,r„,l.  \\.  *?(). 

I  riutardi  Jimki'H  the  Greek  Iohh  ISOO.  Wo  have  already  had  occaf^ioii  to  remark 
upon  tlie  Bmall  iiumbcra  slain  on  the  victorious  side  in  other  battles  of  the  liko 
nature. 


442  THE  TERSIAX  WARS.  [Chap.  XIII. 

the  slcy  uiiclialleiigeJ,  M-as  too  much  for  Spartan  caution,  and  the 
Spartan  king  Leotychides,  who  commanded  the  fleet,  refused  to 
advance  beyond  Delos.  At  length  the  hesitation,  which  all  the 
eloquence  of  the  Samian  envoy  Ilegisistratus*  had  failed  to  over- 
come, gave  way  before  the  omen  suggested  by  his  name,  and  the 
fleet  sailed  for  Samos.  The  Persian  navy  retired,  on  their  approach, 
to  the  promontory  of  Mycale,  near  Miletus,  to  co-operate  with  the 
army  of  00,000  men  under  Tigranes,  on  which  the  safety  of  Ionia 
depended.  By  dismissing  the  Phoenicians,  and  drawing  their  other 
ships  on  shore,  and  joining  their  forces  to  those  of  Tigranes,  they 
virtually  abandoned  the  sea  to  the  Greeks : — such  was  the  terror 
inspired  by  Salamis.  The  Spartan  king,  who  had  needed  fresh 
persuasion  from  tlie  Ionian  envoys  to  advance  beyond  Samos,  must 
have  been  rejoiced  to  And  that  his  enemies  had  taken  to  the  more 
congenial  element.  As  he  sailed  past  their  army,  which  lined 
the  beach,  he  caused  a  loud-voiced  herald  to  invite  the  lonians 
to  revolt,  hoping  at  least  to  bring  them  into  suspicion  with  the 
Persians.  The  late  events  made  the  manoeuvre  more  successful 
than  when  it  had  been  practised  by  Themistocles  at  Euboea.  The 
Samians  in  the  Persian  force  were  disarmed,  and  the  Milesians 
were  sent  to  guard  the  mountain  roads  over  Mount  Mycale  in  the 
rear.  The  Greeks  disembarked,  and  prepared  for  an  attack  in  the 
afternoon. 

Then  happened  one  of  those  marvellous  coincidences,  at  the 
explanation  of  which  we  can  only  guess,  while  their  truth  is  chiefly 
discredited  by  the  haste  with  which  theories  are  built  upon  them. 
The  day  was  the  fourth  of  Boedromion  (nearly  corresponding  to 
our  September),  the  same  month  in  which  the  battle  of  Marathon, 
and  probably  that  of  Salamis,  had  been  gained.  The  remembrance 
of  those  victories,  in  itself  of  such  cheering  omen,  was  saddened 
by  the  thought  of  the  peril  of  their  countrymen  from  the  army  of 
Mardonius.  It  may  have  been  that  confidence  in  their  brethren 
at  home  raised  hopes  which  their  own  excitement  ripened  into 
certainty;  but,  at  the  moment  when  they  were  advancing  to 
the  battle,  a  rumour  flew  through  the  host  from  one  end  to  the 
other  tliat  the  Greeks  had  fought  and  conquered  the  army  of 
Mardonius  in  Boeotia ;  and  at  the  same  time  a  herald's  wand  was 
seen  lying  on  the  beach — the  sign  that  the  message  had  been 
miraculously  wafted  across  the  western  M-ave.f     It  was  afterwards 

*  That  is,  Leader  of  the  Army. 

f  Herod,  ix.  100.  Mr.  Grote  calls  the  message  "  a  divine  Pheme  " — what  the  an- 
cients believed  to  be  "a  divine  voice,  or  vocal  goddess,  generally  considered  as  inform- 


B.C.  479.]  THE  BATTLE  OF  MYCALE.  44£ 

found  that  botli  battles  were  fought  near  a  temple  of  Demeter,  a 
goddess  whose  mystic  relation  to  her  votaries  was  specially  con- 
gruous with  such  an  inspiration.  Let  the  source  of  the  impulse 
have  been  what  it  might,  its  effect  was  instantaneous  and 
decisive.  All  fear  vanished ;  they  rushed  into  the  fight  at  a 
quickened  pace,  and  with  the  feeling  that,  as  their  brethren  had 
freed  Greece,  they  had  to  win  the  prize  of  the  Hellespont  and  the 
islands.* 

The  battle  that  ensued  bore  some  resemblance  to  that  of  Plataea, 
but  the  parts  of  the  Athenians  and  Lacedaemonians  were  inter- 
changed. The  former,  marching  along  the  beach,  came  into  the 
presence  of  the  enemy  long  before  the  latter,  who  had  to  pass  over 
hills  and  along  a  difficult  ravine.  The  Persian  archers,  ensconced, 
as  at  Platsea,  behind  a  breastwork  formed  of  their  wicker  shields, 
long  maintained  an  equal  combat ;  till  the  Athenians,  eager  to  win 
the  field  before  the  Lacedaemonians  came  up,  cheered  each  other 
on  with  shouts,  and  burst  through  the  fence  of  bucklers.  It  was 
only  after  a  further  long  and  brave  resistance  that  the  Persians 
fell  back  into  their  entrenched  camp,  the  Athenians  entering  it 
with  them,  supported  by  the  Corinthians,  Sicyonians,  and  Trseze- 
nians.  Even  then,  though  abandoned  by  the  other  Asiatics,  the 
native  Persians  made  a  last  stand  against  the  superior  arms  and 
discipline  which  had  now  so  oflen  prevailed  in  fighting  hand  to 
hand.  Collecting  in  small  groups  behind  their  trench,  they  met 
each  body  of  the  Greeks  as  they  came  up  to  storm  it.  Both  the 
commanders  of  the  land  forces  fell  in  this  combat ;  but  we  may 
probably  infer  the  demoralization  of  the  fleet  from  the  statement 
that  both  the  admirals  fled.  Among  the  Greeks,  the  chief  loss 
was  sufiered  by  the  Sicyonians,  whose  general  Perilaiis  was  slain. 

ing  a  crowd  of  persons  at  once,  or  moving  them  all  by  one  and  the  same  unanimous 
feeling,  the  Vox  Dei  passing  into  the  Vox  Populi.  There  was  an  altar  to  Pheme  at 
Athens The  descriptions  of  Fama  by  Virgil  and  Ovid  are  more  difl'use  and  over- 
charged, departing  from  the  simplicity  of  the  Greek  conception."  He  illustrates  this 
phenomenon — "the  common  susceptibilities,  common  inspiration,  and  common  spon- 
taneous impulse  of  a  multitude,  effacing  for  the  time  each  man's  sepai-ate  individuality  " — 
by  Michelet's  description  of  the  impulse  which  led  to  the  capture  of  the  Bastile  on  the 
14th  of  July,  1789.  (Grote,  History  of  Greece,  vol.  v.,  pp.  260,  262.)  The  rationalizing 
explanation  of  Diodorus,  that  the  report  was  circulated  by  the  generals,  assumes  a  posi- 
tive fact,  of  which  we  have  no  evidence.  Herodotus,  by-the-bye,  does  not  make  the 
rumour  so  specific  as  writers  who  repeat  it  on  his  authority : — nothing  is  said  of  the  vic- 
tory having  been  gained  at  Plataea  or  on  that  very  day.  He  adds  that  this  exact  coinci- 
dence became  known  by  subsequent  enquiry. 

*  Herod,  ix.  101.  It  is  to  be  observed  that  he  does  not  name  Ionia.  Whatever  the 
Greeks  may  have  hoped  at  the  time,  he  knew — writing  after  the  event — that  the  Persian 
hold  upon  Ionia  was  not  to  be  so  easily  unloosed. 


444  THE  PERSIAX  WARS.  [Chap.  XIII. 

It  was  not  till  the  arrival  of  tlie  Lacedoemonians  tliat  the  victory- 
was  decided.  The  rout  was  rendered  irremediable  hj  the  defection 
of  the  lonians.  The  disarmed  Samians  in  the  Persian  camp  did 
all  they  could  to  help  the  Greeks;  and  the  Milesians  used  their 
knowledge  of  the  mountain  paths  to  guide  whole  bands  of  fugi- 
tives into  the  way  of  their  pursuers,  and  set  upon  them  themselves. 
The  Greeks  completed  their  victory  by  burning  the  Persian  fleet, 
which  had  been  drawn  up  on  shore  at  Mycale ;  and  the  remnants 
of  the  Persian  army  retired  to  Sardis,  to  complete  the  mortification 
of  Xerxes,  who  had  remained  there  since  his  retreat  from  Europe. 
His  militarj^  resources  were  for  the  time  exliausted ;  and  the  battle 
of  Mycale  liberated  the  islands,  and  placed  Ionia  a  second  time  in 
the  attitude  of  revolt. 

x\nd  now  arose  the  question — How  were  the  lonians  to  be 
defended  ?  or,  Were  they  to  be  defended  at  all  ? — for  the  selfish 
caution  of  the  Peloponnesians  did  not  scruple  to  hesitate  at  the 
latter  alternative.  The  great  islands  of  Lesbos,  Chios,  and  Samos, 
which  were  well  able  to  protect  themselves,  now  that  the  Persian 
fleet  was  destroyed,  were  received  at  once  into  the  confederacy ; 
but  the  Lacedsemonians  could  see  no  better  course  for  the  lonians 
of  the  continent  than  a  wholesale  deportation.  They  proposed  to 
give  them  the  sea-port  towns  of  those  Greeks  who  had  sided  with 
the  Persians.  The  Athenians  refused  to  listen  to  a  plan  so  dero- 
gatory to  the  importance  of  their  city  as  the  metropolis  of  the 
Ionian  colonies.  The  argument  was  admitted  by  the  Lacedae- 
monians ;  but  they  left  all  the  responsibility  with  the  Athenians, 
who  thus  gained  an  important  step  towards  maritime  ascendancy 
and  the  leadership  of  the  Asiatic  Greeks.  These  debates  took 
place  while  the  fleet  were  at  the  rendezvous  of  Samos.  Thence 
the  allies  sailed  to  the  Hellespont,  not  being  yet  aware  that  the 
bridges  were  destroyed.  On  finding  that  Xerxes  had  recrossed 
the  strait  ten  months  before,  the  Peloponnesians  returned  home, 
while  the  Athenians  under  Xanthippus  remained  to  expel  the 
Persians  from  the  Chersonese ;  an  operation  which  was  completed 
by  the  capture  of  Sestos,  the  chief  Persian  garrison ;  and  then  the 
fleet  returned  to  Athens.  This  victory  rendered  certain  the  liber- 
ation of  Thrace  and  Macedonia.  The  History  of  Herodotus  con- 
cludes with  the  taking  of  Sestos  (b.c.  478). 

The  last  events  of  this  campaign  could  not  fail  to  cast  the  cloud 
of  mutual  jealousy  over  the  glories  won  by  the  united  arms  of 
Greece.  Athens  now  stood  forth  as  the  leader  of  the  Ionian  rfice 
and  the  guardian  of  Hellenic  interests  on  the  sea.     During  the 


B.C.  478.]  FORTIFICATIOif  OF  ATHENS. 


445 


very  time  wlien  the  Athenians  had  been  without  a  conntiy,  tlieir 
military  organization  had  been  j^erfected  ;  and  their  character  had 
been  established  as  the  first  of  the  Greeks,  both  in  j)atriotic  reso- 
lution and  effective  counsels.  This  position  was  sure  to  rouse  that 
Spartan  jealousy,  which  the  extremest  peril  of  the  common  cause 
had  scarcely  checked.  Athens  had  many  other  jealous  rivals, 
and  especially  the  JEginetans  and  Corinthians,  l^o  sooner  did  the 
people  begin  to  rebuild  their  ruined  city,  than  all  these  feelings 
burst  forth ;  and  the  notable  project  was  started  by  Sparta,  that 
Athens,  in  common  with  all  the  cities  of  Northern  Greece,  should 
be  left  unfortified,  and  that  the  common  defence  should  henceforth 
be  concentrated  at  the  Isthmus.  It  is  by  no  means  our  intention 
to  treat  the  internal  politics  of  the  Greek  states  on  the  scale 
which  we  have  thought  suitable  to  those  wars  of  freedom  which 
formed  the  chief  crisis  of  ancient  history.  It  is  for  the  historian 
of  Greece  to  recount  the  oft-told  story  of  the  firmness  of  Themis- 
tocles,  and  his  daring  craft  in  amusing  the  Spartans  with  excuses 
for  delay,  while  men,  women,  and  children  laboured  at  the  for- 
tifications ;  so  that  the  work  was  done,  and  an  open  rupture  with 
Sparta  avoided,  l^or  can  we  stay  to  describe  his  vast  plans,  which 
it  was  reserved  for  Pericles  to  complete,  for  the  fortification  of 
the  ports  of  Peirseus  and  Munychia,  in  addition  to  Phalerum,  to 
which  was  afterwards  added  their  connection  with  Athens  by 
means  of  the  "  Long  Walls."  The  object  of  these  works  was  to 
combine  Athens  and  her  ports  into  one  vast  fortified  enclosure, 
within  which  the  population  of  Attica  might  find  refuge  from  an 
invader,  while  the  sea  remained  open  to  their  fleets.  This  plan 
was  the  key  to  all  the  future  policy  of  Athens  as  a  maritime  state. 
We  shall  soon  see  how  it  was  carried  out  by  Pericles  in  the  Pelo- 
ponnesian  War ;  and  how  a  more  ambitious  policy  led  to  the 
downfall  of  the  state. 

At  present,  however,  we  have  to  follow  the  war  w^itli  Persia  to 
its  final  issue.  An  expedition  was  fitted  out  under  tlie  Spartan 
king  Pausanias  to  prosecute  the  war  on  the  shores  of  Asia.  It 
was  composed  of  twenty  Peloponnesian  ships,  and  thirty  Athenian, 
under  Aristides  and  Cimon,  besides  others  from  Ionia  and  the 
islands  (b.c.  478).  After  liberating  most  of  the  cities  of  Cyprus, 
they  took  Byzantium  from  the  Persians,  and  so  cleared  the 
passage  to  the  Euxine,  the  quarter  from  which  Greece  obtained 
her  chief  supplies  of  foreign  corn.  It  was  here  that  Pausanias 
began  the  treasonable  correspondence  with  Xerxes,  which  is  so 
graphically  related  by  Thucydides.     His  proposals  to  marry  the 


446  THE  PERSIAN  WARS.  [Chap.  XIII. 

daughter  o?"  the  king,  and  to  bring  all  Greece  under  his  sway, 
were  eagerly  responded  to ;  and  the  promise  of  support  from 
Xerxes  converted  an  aiTOgance  already  scarcely  tolerable  into  the 
open  and  outrageous  license  of  an  oriental  ruler.  Pausanias  even 
adopted  the  Persian  dress,  and  surrounded  himself  with  Median 
and  Egj-ptian  body-guards.  He  was  recalled  to  Sj)arta,  and 
placed  on  his  trial.  Though  he  was  acquitted  on  the  charges  of 
wrongs  counnitted  against  individuals,  and  though  his  correspond 
ence  with  Xerxes  was  as  yet  undiscovered,  the  presmuptive  proofs 
of  '•  Medism  "  were  so  strong,  that  he  was  not  permitted  to  re- 
sume his  command.  How  he  carried  on  his  intrigues  in  his 
private  capacity ;  how,  when  his  treason  was  at  last  detected,  lie 
attempted  to  raise  the  Helots  in  rebellion ;  and  how  he  perished 
by  famine,  blockaded  in  the  temple  of  "  Athena  of  the  Brazen 
House,"  in  which  he  had  taken  sanctuary,  his  own  mother  laying 
the  first  stone  against  the  gate, — all  this  we  must  leave  to  the 
historians  of  Greece.*  Our  present  concern  is  with  the  moment- 
ous result  of  his  treason  upon  the  Hellenic  confederacy. 

We  have  seen  how  fully  the  leadershij)  of  Sparta  was  recog- 
nised in  the  late  combined  efforts  of  the  Greeks,  and  with  what 
patriotic  forbearance  Athens  herself  had  submitted  to  it.  But  a 
feeling  seems  long  to  have  been  growing  among  the  allies,  that  the 
power  of  the  Athenian  navy  and  the  maritime  character  of  her  peo- 
ple gave  her  a  right' to  the  leadership  at  sea.  Her  unparalleled 
services  during  the  late  conflict  might  well  cast  the  traditional 
claims  of  Sparta  into  the  shade,  especially  with  the  lonians  and 
islanders  who  formed  a  large  proportion  of  the  fleet  on  the  coast 
of  Asia.  In  that  fleet  Athens  was  represented  by  leaders  as  wise 
and  conciliating  as  Pausanias  was  rash  and  overbearing ;  and,  on 
his  departure  with  the  Spartan  squadron,  the  allies  placed  the 
command  in  the  hands  of  Cimon  and  Aristides.  When  Dorcis 
came  out  as  the  successor  of  Pausanias,  he  found  that,  in  the 
fleet  which  was  the  only  force  that  the  Greeks  had  now  on  foot 
in  common,  the  supremacy  had  been  transferred  to  the  Athenians ; 
and  he  could  only  return  to  inform  the  Spartans  of  the  loss  they 
had  sustained. 

This  great  change  had  been  rendered  inevitable  by  the  fatal 
incapacity  of  Sparta  to  follow  out  a  comprehensive  policy,  which 

*  Another  memorable  example  of  the  prevailing  tendency  of  Greek  leaders  to  be  cor- 
rupted by  prosperity  was  furnished  about  the  same  time  by  the  other  Spartan  king,  Leo- 
tychides,  the  victor  at  Mycale.  Sent  against  the  Medizers  of  Thessaly,  he  was  detected 
in  taking  bribes,  condemned  to  exile,  and  his  house  razed  to  the  ground. 


B.C.  477.]  CONFEDERACY  OF  DELOS.  447 

should  liave  embraced  tlie  whole  Hellenic  race.  It  put  an  end  to 
all  hopes  of  Panhellenic  union.  For,  though  Athens  was  distin- 
guished by  the  qualities  which  Sparta  wanted,  the  latter,  and  the 
Peloponnesian  states  in  general,  were  sure  not  to  submit  to  the 
leadership  of  the  former.  Henceforth,  Hellas  was  divided  into 
two  great  parties,  distinguished  both  by  race  and  military  habits — 
the  Dorians,  and  the  land  states  in  general,  adhering  to  Sparta ; 
the  lonians  and  the  maritime  states  transferring  their  sympathies 
to  Athens,  The  immediate  result  was  to  place  in  the  hands  of 
the  latter  the  whole  direction  of  the  allied  fleet,  from  which  the 
Peloponnesians  had  in  fact  seceded,  and  the  prosecution  of  the 
war  with  Persia ;  and  it  was  fortunate  that  the  command  lay  in 
the  hands  of  Aristides.  His  inflexible  fairness  organized  the 
maritime  states  into  the  famous  Confederacy  of  Delos.  This 
island,  lying  conveniently  in  the  midst  of  the  ^gaean,  and  of  old 
the  chief  political  and  religious  centre  of  the  Ionian  race,*  was 
chosen  for  the  common  treasury  and  place  of  meeting.  Each 
state  was  bound  to  contribute  its  quota  in  ships  or  money  or  both, 
for  the  general  defence,  and  especially  for  the  prosecution  of  the  war 
with  Persia.  To  Athens  was  committed  the  work  of  assessment, 
subject  to  the  confirmation  of  the  synod ;  and  it  was  in  this  task 
that  the  probity  of  Aristides  was  as  invaluable  as  the  shifty  policy 
of  Themistocles  would  have  been  ruinous.  It  was  the  singular 
good  fortune  of  Athens  that  each  of  these  statesmen  was  called,  at 
this  crisis,  to  do  the  work  suited  to  his  genius.  The  assessment  of 
Aristides  was  not  only  cheerfully  accepted  at  the  time,  but  was 
appealed  to  as  just  and  moderate  after  the  leadership  of  Athens  had 
passed  into  a  tyrannical  supremacy.  Of  its  details  we  only  know 
that  the  aggregate  amount  in  money,  besides  ships,  was  460  talents 
(about  106,000/.).  The  magnitude  of  the  amount  proves  the  wide 
extent  of  the  confederacy.  The  common  treasury  at  Delos  was 
managed  by  a  board  appointed  by  the  Athenians,  and  called  the 
Hellenotamice,  that  is,  stewards  for  the  Greeks. 

It  is  of  the  first  importance  to  distinguish  between  the  voluntary 
confederacy  of  Delos,  with  Athens  as  its  responsible  head,  and  the 
maritime  empire  afterwards  built  upon  its  ruins.  "  Thucydides," 
says  Mr.  Grote,  "  makes  us  clearly  understand  the  difiference 
between  presiding  Athens,  with  her  autonomous  and  regularly 
assembled  allies  in  b.c.  476,  and  imperial  Athens  with  her  subject 
allies  in  b.c.  432  :  the  Greek  word  equivalent  to  allyleit  either  of 
these  epithets  to  be  understood  by  an  ambiguity  exceedingly  con- 

*  This  is  the  position  which  Delos  holds  in  Homer. 


448  THE  PERSIAN  WARS.  [Chap.  XIII. 

venient  to  tlie  poM-erful  states."  ■"  In  its  original  fonn,  the  league 
was  a  spontaneous  movement  for  mutual  help  and  strength,  as 
well  as  for  defence  against  the  danger  which  was  still  by  no  means 
to  be  despised.  For  Persia  not  only  threatened  the  islands  from 
her  Asiatic  coast,  and  still  held  several  important  positions  in 
Thrace,  but  the  Medizing  party  was  strong  in  the  heart  of  Greece : 
and  how  suddenly  it  iviight  become  formidable  was  proved  by  the 
cases  of  Pausanias  and  Themistocles. 

While  the  confederates  of  Delos  were  energetically  prosecuting 
the  maritime  war  witli  Persia,  events  of  the  deepest  interest  were 
taking  place  at  Athens.  It  belongs  to  more  special  histories  to 
trace  in  detail  the  rapid  development  of  democracy  which  resulted 
from  the  ascendancy  of  "  the  maritime  multitude,  authors  of  the 
victory  of  Salamis."  f  We  have  to  glance  at  the  fortunes  of  the 
men  who  had  led  them  on  to  the  victory,  and  at  the  rise  of  a 
new  generation  of  statesmen  to  fill  their  places.  The  positions  of 
Aristides  and  Themistocles  were  entirely  changed.  We  hear  of 
no  renewal  of  their  rivalry.  Aristides  may  be  said  almost  to  have 
been  placed  above  rivalry  by  his  public  services  and  his  tried 
integrity.  His  simple  patriotism  received  a  fresh  illustration  from 
his  acceptance  of  the  new  order  of  things  in  the  state ;  and  in  the 
administrator  of  the  confederacy  of  Delos  we  scarcely  recognise 
the  opponent  of  the  naval  policy  of  Themistocles.  But  Themis- 
tocles found  a  more  violent  opponent  in  Cimon,  the  son  of 
Miltiades,  who  now  appeared  as  the  head  of  the  party  of  the  old 
nobles.:];  But  it  was  his  own  conduct  that  most  shook  his  influence 
in  the  state.  Like  Pausanias,  his  head  was  turned  by  success, 
and  he  disgusted  Lis  fellow-citizens  by  personal  ostentation,  and 
perpetual  boasts  of  his  services.  But  this  was  not  all.  As  the 
commander  of  a  squadron  sent  to  arrange  the  affairs  of  the  islands, 
he  was  accused  of  the  grossest  corru])tion  and  partiality  in  expel- 
ling or  restoring  citizens  charged  with  Medism,  and  even  with 
putting  some  to  death  at  his  arbitrary  pleasure.  While  his 
conduct  tended  to  bring  the  leadership  of  Athens  into  odium  with 
the  allies,  it  raised  up  for  himself  a  host  of  enemies;  and  the 

*  Grote,  Jfistory  of  Greece,  vol.  v.,  p.  355. 

f  Aristot.  FoUf.  v.  3,  §  5. 

J  This  is  commouly  called  tbe  aristocratic  party  ;  but  the  term  is  calculated  to 
mislead.  Democratic  iustitutious  were  now  too  firmly  established  at  Athens  to  allow 
of  any  question,  for  the  present  at  least,  about  the  restoration  of  aristocratic  govern- 
ment. In  fact,  the  relations  of  parties  at  Athens  are  not  to  be  understood  by  applying 
to  them  general  political  names — much  less  by  viewing  them,  as  some  do,  in  the  light 
of  our  own  party  divisions — but  by  studying  the  actual  course  of  their  policy. 


B.C.  471.]         FLIGHT  OF  TIIEMISTOOLES  TO  PFFSIA.  44'J 

hatred  he  had  incurred  with  the  Lacedaemonians  bv  ontwittine; 
them  in  the  fortification  of  Athens  was  inflamed  by  a  snspicion 
that  he  was  implicated  in  the  treason  of  Pansanias.  It  is  said  to 
have  been  at  the  instigation  of  Sparta  that  his  rivals  bronght 
against  him  the  charge  of  Medism,  on  which  he  was  acquitted; 
but  not  long  afterwards  a  vote  of  ostracism  banished  him  from 
Athens,  and  he  retired  to  Argos  (b.c.  471).  The  known  leaning 
of  this  city  towards  Persia  would  make  it  a  favourable  spot  for  any 
Medizing  intrigues  that  Themistocles  might  be  disposed  to  carry 
on ;  and  he  was  not  the  man  to  shrink  from  such  a  mode  of  pro- 
viding for  his  own  safety,  and  recovering  elsewhere  the  importance 
he  had  lost  at  home.  The  extent  of  his  guilt  is  a  point  still 
involved  in  obscurity  ;  but  the  proceedings  against  Pausanias 
brought  out  evidence  so  strongly  affecting  Themistocles,  that  the 
Laeedsemonians  proposed  to  the  Athenians  that  he  should  be  put 
on  his  trial  before  the  congress  of  the  allies  at  Sparta.  Envoys 
from  the  two  states  were  sent  to  apprehend  him ;  but,  before  they 
reached  Argos,  he  fled  to  Corcyra,  and  thence  to  the  opposite 
mainland  of  Epirus.  All  know  the  romantic  stories  of  his  sitting 
as  a  suppliant  on  the  hearth  of  his  old  enemy,  King  Admetus,  who 
refused  to  give  him  up  to  the  envoys,  and  sped  him  on  his  way  to 
Persia ;  and  of  his  safe  passage  by  the  Athenian  fleet  besieging 
IS^axos,  through  his  presence  of  mind  in  dealing  with  the  captain 
of  the  vessel  that  carried  him.  Landing  at  Ephesus,  he  was  con- 
ducted to  Susa,  where  xirtaxerxes  Longimanus  now  reigned. 
To  that  king  he  addressed  a  letter,  rather  in  the  tone  of  a  high 
ambassador,  or  a  royal  visitor,  than  of  a  suppliant : — "  I,  Themis- 
tocles, am  come  to  thee,  having  done  to  thy  house  more  mischief 
than  any  other  Greek,  as  long  as  I  was  compelled  in  my  own 
defence  to  resist  the  attack  of  thy  father ;  but  having  also  done 
him  yet  greater  good,  when  I  could  do  so  with  safety  to  myself. 
and  when  his  retreat  was  endangered.*  Reward  is  yet  owing  to 
me  for  my  past  service ;  moreover,  I  am  now  here,  chased  away 
by  the  Greeks  in  consequence  of  my  attachment  to  thee,  but  able 
still  to  serve  thee  with  great  effect.  I  wish  to  wait  a  year,  and 
then  to  come  before  thee  in  person,  to  explain  my  views. "  The 
delay  was  granted,  and  Themistocles  used  the  interval  so  well  as 
to  be  able  to  play  the  courtier  after  the  Persian  fashion,  and  to 
converse  with  the  king  in  the  Persian  tongue,  amusing  him  with 
fresh  schemes  for  the  subjugation  of  Greece.  He  was  rewarded 
with  a  Persian  wife  and  a  j)rincely  residence  at  Magnesia  in  Ionia, 

*  See  pp.  424,431. 
VOL.  I.— 29 


450  THE  PERSIAN  WARS.  [Chap.  XIII. 

wliere  his  wants  were  provided  for  after  tlie  fashion  of  the  Persian 
kinf^s.  Magnesia  with  its  territory,  the  revenues  of  wliich  amount- 
ed to  fifty  talents  (ahout  12,000Z.),  was  assigned  to  him  for  bread ; 
Myus  for  condiments ;  and  Lampsacus  on  the  Hellespont  for  w^ine. 
His  family  came  out  to  join  him ;  and  he  was  content  to  enjoy 
these  splendid  rewards  of  his  treason,  without  an  attempt  to 
perform  his  promises  to  the  king.  That  he  died  by  his  own  hand 
when  he  found  himself  unable  to  fulfil  those  promises,  is  the 
addition  of  later  writers  to  a  story  which  needs  no  such  embel- 
lishment to  point  its  moral.  A  philosopher  like  Plutarch  could 
hardly  dismiss  such  a  man  without  some  signal  retribution.  But 
there  are  characters  too  selfish  to  feel,  or  at  least  too  self-con- 
tained to  display  remorse ;  and  the  worldly  success  of  such  men  is 
a  problem  not  to  be  solved  by  altering  the  facts  of  history  and  of 
human  nature.  "  Yerily  they  have  their  reward."  The  unimpeach- 
able testimony  of  Thucydides  assures  us  that  Themistocles  died 
of  natural  illness  in  his  sixty-fifth  year.  A  splendid  tomb  was 
erected  to  him  at  Magnesia ;  but  a  report  prevailed  in  later  times, 
that  his  family  had,  at  his  express  desire,  transported  his  bones  to 
Attica,  and  buried  them  privately  in  the  ground  where  no  traitor 
was  allowed  to  rest.  Aristides  had  already  died  a  few  years  after 
the  ostracism  of  Themistocles,  and  was  honoured  with  a  public 
funeral  and  a  tomb  at  Phalerum.  The  stories  of  his  poverty  may 
be  exaggerated:  but  it  is  certain  that  the  man  who  made  the 
assessment  of  Delos  added  nothing  to  his  own  fortune,  while  his 
rival,  who  is  said  to  have  begun  life  with  only  three  talents,  left 
behind  him  at  Athens  100  talents,  besides  what  he  carried  with 
him  in  his  flight.  This  contrast  is  almost  sufficient  of  itself  to 
stamp  the  characters  of  the  men. 

The  party  leaders  who  succeeded  them  were  Cimon,  the  son  of 
Miltiades,  and  Pericles,  the  son  of  Xanthippus.  The  political 
rivalry  of  these  statesmen  was  inflamed  by  hereditary  personal 
opposition ;  for,  as  we  have  seen,  Xanthippus  had  been  the  accuser 
of  Miltiades ;  and,  besides,  Pericles  belonged,  on  his  mother's  side, 
to  the  family  of  the  Alcmjeonidae.  The  remarkable  contrast 
between  their  personal  characters  cannot  be  better  drawn  than  in 
the  words  of  Mr.  Grote : — "  In  taste,  in  talent,  and  in  character, 
Cimon  was  the  very  opposite  of  Pericles — a  brave  and  efficient 
commander,  a  lavish  distributor,  a  man  of  convivial  and  amorous 
habits,  but  incapable  of  sustained  attention  to  business,  untaught 
in  music  and  letters,  and  endued  with  Laconian  aversion  to  rhetoric 
and  philosophy ;  while  the  ascendancy  of  Pericles  was  founded  on 


B.C.  476—466.]  CAMPAIGNS  OF  CIMON"  AGAINST  PERSIA.  451 

liis  admirable  combination  of  civil  qualities — probity,  firmness, 
diligence,  judgment,  eloquence,  and  power  of  guiding  partisans. 
As  a  military  commander,  tliougli  no  way  deficient  in  personal 
courage,  lie  rarely  courted  distinction,  and  was  principally  famous 
for  liis  care  of  the  lives  of  the  citizens,  discountenancing  all  rasb 
or  distant  enterprises :  liis  private  habits  were  sober  and  recluse 
— his  chief  conversation  was  with  Anaxagoras,  Protagoras,  Zeno, 
the  musician  Damon,  and  other  philosophers — while  the  tenderest 
domestic  attachment  bound  him  to  the  engaging  and  cultivated 
Aspasia."  *  Such  were  the  two  men  who  now  headed  what — for 
want  of  a  more  exact  definition — are  called  the  oligarchical  and 
democratic  parties  in  the  Athenian  state.  In  foreign  politics, 
Cimon  was  a  staunch  advocate  of  the  alliance  with  Sparta,  with 
which  city  he  had  intimate  personal  relations ;  and  the  extent 
to  which  he  sometimes  permitted  his  "  Laconism"  to  influence 
his  Athenian  policy, — not  corruptly,  but  from  a  coincidence  of 
personal  bias  with  political  conviction, — was  as  marked  as  the 
similar  leanings  of  some  of  our  own  statesmen  to  continental 
powers.  Cimon  was  considerably  older  than  Pericles.  We  have 
seen  the  former  acting  in  opposition  to  Themistocles  soon  after  the 
second  Persian  war :  it  was  not  till  after  the  ostracism  of  that 
statesman  that  Pericles  began  his  long  public  life  of  forty  years 
(b.  c.  469—429). 

The  brilliant  administration  of  Pericles  belongs  to  the  following 
period  of  Grecian  history :  at  present  we  have  to  trace  the  sequel 
of  the  liberation  of  Greece  by  Athens  and  the  Delian  confederates, 
under  the  leadership  of  Cimon.  The  ten  years  from  b.c.  476  to 
B.C.  466  must  have  been  a  period  of  constant  warfare ;  but  we 
have  very  few  details  of  the  operations  by  which  the  Persians  were 
dislodged  from  the  posts  they  still  occupied  in  Thrace  and  else- 
where. Among  these  was  the  capture  of  Eion,  on  the  Strymon 
(just  above  the  site  afterwards  occupied  by  the  celebrated  city  of 
Amphipolis),  where  the  Persian  governor  destroyed  himself,  \\  ith 
his  family  and  property,  rather  than  surrender.  At  length  a  great 
expedition  was  sent  to  the  south-western  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  con- 
sisting of  200  Athenian  triremes,  and  100  from  the  other  allies, 
under  the  command  of  Cimon  (b.c.  466).  While  he  was  occupied 
in  expelling  the  Persian  garrisons  from  the  chief  cities  of  Caria 
and  Lycia,  the  satraps  collected  a  fleet  and  army  at  the  mouth  of 
the  river  Eurymedon  in  Pamphylia.  On  one  and  the  same  day, 
Cimon  attacked  and  dispersed  their  fleet  of  200  ships,  and  then, 

*  Grote,  History  of  Greece,  vol.  v.,  pp.  488-9. 


452  THE  PERSIAN  WARS.  [Cuap.  XIII. 

luiidiiig  his  lioplites,  routed  the  Persian  army  on  the  shore.  Then, 
sailing  to  Cyprus,  lie  destroyed  a  squadron  of  eighty  Phoenician 
ships,  which  were  on  their  way  to  reinforce  the  fleet  at  the  Eury- 
niedon.  This  double  victory,  which  rewarded  the  allies  with  an 
immense  spoil,  was  justly  regarded  as  crowning  the  work  begun 
at  Salamis  and  Plataia.  The  Persian  no  longer  ventured  west- 
ward beyond  the  bay  of  Pamphylia,  and  the  freedom  of  Greece  and 
the  islands  was  confirmed.  But  those  dissensions  had  already 
be^'un  among  the  allies,  which  were  soon  to  convert  the  confed- 
eracy into  the  maritime  dominion  of  Athens,  and  which  occupied 
the  enero-ies  that  might  have  been  devoted  to  the  liberation  of 
the  Asiatic  colonies.  The  Athenians,  however,  did  not  renounce 
the  idea  of  an  aggressive  war,  to  exact  vengeance  from  their  great 
enemy ;  and  six  years  later  they  seized  the  opportunity  offered  by 
the  revolt  of  Inarus  in  Egypt*  (b.c.  460).  The  first  success  of  their 
expedition  sent  to  his  aid  was  overshadowed  by  a  terrible  reverse 
after  a  war  of  six  years,  involving  the  utter  destruction  not  only 
of  the  original  armament,  but  of  a  reinforcement  of  fifty  ships, 
which  entered  the  Nile  not  knowing  that  the  Persians  were 
masters  of  the  country  (b.c.  455).  But  not  even  then  did  the 
Athenians  give  up  a  hope  of  at  once  obtaining  a  footing  in 
Egypt,  and  damaging  the  empire  at  its  most  vulnerable  point. 
After  another  six  years,  a  great  expedition  of  200  ships  was  sent 
out  under  Cimon,  with  the  double  object  of  attacking  Cypnis  and 
of  assisting  Amyrtseus,  who  still  held  out  in  the  marshes  of  the 
Delta  (b.c.  449).  Detaching  sixty  ships  to  Egypt,  the  rest  of  the 
armament  laid  siege  to  Citium,  in  Cyprus ;  and  before  this  place 
Cimon  died.  His  successor,  Anaxicrates,  encountered  the  Phoe- 
nician and  Cilician  fleet  near  the  Cyprian  town  of  Salamis,  and 
repeated  the  exploit  of  the  Eurymedon  in  a  double  victory  by  sea 
and  land.  This  was  the  last  action  in  the  series  of  wars  which 
had  occupied  full  fifty  years  from  the  outbreak  of  the  Ionian 
revolt.  Though  the  transaction  is  involved  in  some  obscurity, 
there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  a  formal  convention  was  concluded 
at  Susa  by  the  Athenian  envoy  Callias,  under  which  a  boundary 
line  was  drawn  between  Persia  on  the  one  side,  and  the  pos- 
sessions of  the  Asiatic  Greeks  and  the  maritime  empire  of  the 
allies  on  the  other.  Artaxerxes  bound  himself  to  leave  the  mari- 
time colonies  of  Western  Asia  free,  untaxed,  and  unmolested, 
and  not  to  send  troops  within  a  certain  prescribed  distance  of 
their  coast ;  nor  to  send  ships  of  war  to  the  west  of  the  Cheli- 

*  Compare  chap,  vii.,  p.  139. 


B.C.  449.]  CONVENTION  OF  OALLIAS.  453 

donian  islands  on  the  soutliern  coast,  or  of  the  Cyanean  rocks  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Thracian  Bosporus.  The  Athenians,  on  their 
part,  agreed  to  abstain  from  all  further  attacks  on  Egypt  and 
Cyprus.  In  its  most  important  article,  the  convention  proved 
before  long  to  be  a  dead  letter.  Tlie  states  of  Greece,  which  had 
already  begun  to  turn  their  arms  against  each  other,  were  so  far 
from  maintaining  the  independence  of  Ionia,  that  they  sought 
Persian  aid  and  submitted  to  Persian  arbitration  in  their  own  in- 
ternal conflicts.  The  brilliant  campaigns  of  Agesilaiis  (b.c.  396 — 
394),  which  promised  to  carry  the  Greek  arms  into  the  heart  of 
Persia,  were  frustrated  by  a  league  which  the  great  king  formed 
against  Sparta  in  Greece  itself ;  and  the  shameful  peace  of  Antal- 
cidas  definitively  gave  up  all  the  Greek  cities  in  Asia,  as  well  as 
Cyprus  (b.c.  387).  But  just  twenty  years  later,  and  a  hundred 
years  after  the  battles  of  tlie  Eurymedon  (b.c.  366),  the  conqueror 
was  born,  whose  vast  ambition  renewed  the  aggressive  war,  and 
avenged  the  invasion  begun  by  the  first  Darius  in  the  overthrow 
of  the  last. 


464  RIVALRY   OF   THE    GREEK   REPUBLICS. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 


RIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS. 

FROM   THE   COKFEDERACY   OF   DELOS   TO    THE   EXD    OF    TIIE 
THEBAIC  SUPREMACY.     B.C.  477  TO  B.C.  360. 


"  'T  were  long  to  tell,  and  sad  to  trace, 
Each  step  from  splendour  to  disgrace  ; 
Enough — no  foreign  foe  could  quell 
Thy  soul,  till  from  itself  it  fell ; 
Yes  !  self-abasement  paved  the  way 
To  villain-bonds  and  despot  sway." — Byron. 


gTATE   op    GREECE   AFTER  THE   PERSIAN   WARS — RISE   OF   THE   MARITIME    EMPIRE    OF  ATHEira 

— REVOLTS   OF   NAXOS   AND   THASOS — AFFAIRS   OF    THE  CONTINENT DECLINE    OF   SPARTAN 

ASCENDANCY — REVOLT  OP  THE  HELOTS  :  THIRD  MESSENIAN  WAR — ATHENIAN  POLITICS — 
OSTRACISM     OF     CIMON — ADVANCE     OF    DEMOCRACY' — WARS   WITH     THE     DORIAN    STATES — 

THE     FIVE    tears'    TRUCE — NEW   WARS BATTLE     OF     CORONEA MEGARA   AND     EUBCEA — 

LACEDEMONIAN  INVASION  OF  ATTICA THIRTY  TEARS'  TRUCE — ASCENDANCY  OF  PERI- 
CLES—  BRILLIANT  EPOCH  OF  ATHENS — SPLENDOUR  OP  ART  AND  LITERATURE — CAUSES 
AND  OUTBREAK  OF  THE  PELOPONNESIAN  WAR — ITS  FIRST  PERIOD,  TO  THE  FIFTY 
tears'  TRUCE  OF  NICIAS INVASIONS  OF  ATTICA — PLAGUE  AT  ATHENS — NAVAL  SUC- 
CESSES— REVOLTS  OF  ALLIES — ATHENIAN  STATESMEN  AND  DEMAGOGUES — NICIAS,  DEMOS- 
THENES, AND    CLEON — ARISTOPHANES — WAR   OP   AMPHIPOLIS — BRASIDAS  AND    THUCYDIDES 

— SECOND     PERIOD     OP     THE     WAR,     TO     THE     FAILURE     OF     THE     SICILIAN     EXPEDITION 

ALCIBIADES — THIRD  PERIOD  OF  THE  WAR — FORTIFICATION  OP  DECELEA — DECLINE  OF 
ATHENS — NAVAL     CAMPAIGNS     ON     THE     SHORES     OF    ASIA — BATTLES     OF     ARGINUS.E     AND 

^GOSPOTAMI CAPTURE     OP    ATHENS — THE     THIRTY     TYRANTS — COUNTER     REVOLUTION 

PEACE  WITH  SPARTA — DEATH  OP  SOCRATES — SPARTAN  SUPREMACY — EXPEDITION  OF  THE 
YOUNGER    CYRUS     AND    THE     TEN     THOUSAND     GREEKS — LACEDEMONIAN     WAR    IN     ASIA — 

AGESILAUS — LEAGUE    AGAINST    SPARTA CORINTHIAN    WAR BATTLES    OF     CORONEA     AND 

CNIDUS — PEACE   OF   ANTALCIDAS — OLYNTHIAN   WAR — WAR  BETWEEN  THEBES  AND   SPARTA 

EPAMINONDAS  AND    PELOPIDAS — PEACE  OF   CALLIAS — BATTLE  OF    LEUCTRA — SUPREMACY 

OF   THEBES — INVASION    OF    PELOPONNESUS^LEAGCE    AGAINST    SPARTA — BATTLE    OF    MAN-" 
TINEA   AND    DEATH     OP    EPAMINONDAS — GENERAL     PACIFICATION — AGESILAU§     IN    EGYPT  : 
HIS     DEATH — DECLINE     OP     THEBES— STATE     OP     GREECE     AT     THIS     EPOCH — ORATORS     AT 
ATHENS — APEAIRS   OF   SICILY — THE     DIONYSII,    DION    AND    TIMOLEON — ART,     LITERATURE, 
AND   PHILOSOPHY. 

The  interval  of  one  Imndred  and  twenty  years,  from  the  final 
repulse  of  the  Persians  to  the  accession  of  the  Macedonian  Philip 
(b.c.  479 — 459),  presents  a  very  different  aspect  in  the  annals  of 
Greece  and  in  the  history  of  the  world.  To  the  classical  student 
it  offers  a  field  for  the  most  minute  research,  on  a  scale  which 
would  be  alike  impossible  within  the  limits  of  our  work  and 
inconsistent  with  our  plan.  All  we  can  attempt  is  to  trace,  in 
broad  outline,  the  part  which  was  played  in  general  history  by  the 
restless  activity  and  mutual  rivalries  of  the  Greek  republics,  when 
freed  from  the  danger  of  despotic  rule ; — the  immense  impulse 
which  they  gave  to  the  intellectual  progress  of  our  race  ; — their 


B.C.  477.]  STATE  OF  GREECE.  455 

experiments  in  free  government ; — the  proof  they  furnished,  how 
much  easier  it  is  to  gain  liberty  by  a  tremendous  effort  of  patriotic 
courage,  than  to  preserve  and  use  it  wisely  by  a  course  of  modera- 
tion and  self-sacrifice. 

We  have  seen,  in  the  earliest  condition  of  Greece,  the  local 
barriers  by  which  her  inhabitants  were  severed  from  each  other, 
and  grouped  into  small  states  which  were  driven  into  mutual 
hostility,  at  first  by  the  instinct  of  self-preservation,  and  after- 
wards by  a  real  or  supposed  diversity  of  interests.  Minor  varieties 
of  race  proved  more  powerful  to  dissever,  than  common  blood, 
language,  and  religion  to  unite  the  sections  of  the  Hellenic  race ; 
nor  had  those  grand  institutions,  in  which  their  unity  was  cherished 
by  themselves  and  displayed  before  the  world,  power  to  still  the 
passions  roused  by  the  great  conflict,  which  human  nature  is  ever 
waging,  between  the  Poor  and  the  Kich,  the  Nobles  and  the 
Commons,  the  Many  and  the  Few.  Intercourse  with  other  nations 
at  once  tested  and  developed  the  differences  of  national  character ; 
and  the  new  interests  created  by  foreign  commerce  widened  the 
separation  between  the  maritime  and  non-maritime  states ;  while 
the  former  were  driven,  as  in  the  cases  of  Corinth,  and  Corcyra, 
Athens  and  -^gina,  to  fight  among  themselves  for  that  empire 
of  the  sea,  which  seems,  in  its  very  nature,  to  admit  of  no  par- 
tition.* 

The  collision  with  Persia  suspended  for  a  moment,  and  even 
then  far  from  completely,  the  action  of  these  disorganizing  influ- 
ences ;  and  the  patriotic  submission  of  Athens  to  the  leadership 
of  Sparta  held  out  the  hope  of  an  Hellenic  union  which  should 
solve  the  great  problem  of  the  harmony  of  liberty  with  order. 
We  have  seen  how  the  current  of  events,  the  conduct  of  the 
different  states,  and  the  characters  of  their  statesmen,  worked 
together  to  frustrate  such  a  hope.  The  intrigues  of  Themistocles 
and  the  insolence  of  Pausanias  completed  the  severance  of  the 
Greeks  into  two  great  parties,  with  Athens  and  Sparta  for  their 
acknowledged  leaders ;  the  one  Ionian,  maritime,  and  democratic, 
the  other  Dorian,  continental,  and  oligarchical ; — the  one  organ- 
ized in  the  league  of  Delos,  the  other  in  the  Peloponnesian  con- 
federacy.f     In  the  form  which  the  two  divisions  ultimately  as- 

*  The  wars  of  Corinth  and  CorcjTa  are  a  peculiarly  strong  illustration,  as  the  two 
states  were  of  the  same  race,  and  were  united  by  the  sacred  relation  of  metropolis  and 
colony. 

f  These  general  characters  of  the  two  parties  are  subject  to  particular  exceptions. 
For  instance,  maritime  Corinth  was  drawn  to  Sparta  as  a  Dorian  and  Peloponnesian  state, 


456  RIVALRY  OF  THE   GREEK  REPUBLICS.     [Chap.  XIV 

sumed,  tliat  of  Spartu  embraced  the  Peloponnesus  (except  Argos, 
wliich  maintained  a  trimming  policy),  and  the  greater  part  of 
Northern  Greece ;  that  of  Athens  the  islands  of  the  iEgaean  and 
the  Ionian  seas,  and  the  colonies  of  Asia  Minor.* 

The  position  of  Athens  at  the  head  of  the  Delian  confederacy, 
as  the  leader  of  free  and  voluntary  allies,  could  only  have  been 
maintained  by  an  extraordinary  exercise  of  self-denial  on  her 
part,  and  of  vigilance  by  each  mendjer  of  the  confederacy.  The 
power  placed  in  her  hands,  at  first  in  conjunction  with  the  synod, 
of  enforcing  on  the  states  the  obligations  they  had  voluntarily 
incurred,  was  sure  to  prove  a  temptation  to  herself  and  a  cause 
of  ofience  to  her  allies.  The  constant  burden  of  personal  service 
began  to  be  irksome  as  soon  as  its  immediate  necessity  ceased, 
and  many  of  the  lesser  states  welcomed  the  compromise  of  a 
money  payment  in  place  of  their  appointed  contingent  of  ships 
and  men.  This  measure,  which  was  clearly  based  on  the  wishes 
of  the  allies  themselves,  strengthened  Athens  doubly  at  their 
expense.  For  while  they  were  deprived  at  once  of  their  resources 
and  their  military  organization,  those  very  resources  went  to 
increase  the  force  which  Athens  was  bound  by  the  treaty,  and 
eager  by  her  own  enterprising  spirit,  to  keep  on  foot.  The  result 
was  inevitable,  that  Athens  came  to  regard  herself  as  the  imperial 
head  of  a  body  of  tributary  allies,  owing  to  her  the  allegiance 
which  they  had  at  first  sworn  to  the  common  cause.  Her  ambi- 
tion made  her  more  than  ready  to  accept  the  position  thus  forced 
upon  her ;  and  its  maintenance  soon  came  to  be  a  matter  of  self- 
preservation.  Her  empire,  as  her  great  statesman  declared,  be- 
came a  tyranny,  which  it  might  have  been  unjust  to  acquire,  but 
was  ruinous  to  let  go.  The  more  her  resolution  to  enforce  the 
conditions  of  the  pact  made  lier  unpopular  with  her  own  allies, — 
the  more  her  determination  to  hold  them  fast  exposed  her  to  gen- 
eral odium  as  the  oppressor  of  a  large  part  of  Hellas, — the  less  was 
she  likely  to  permit  the  subject  states  to  be  added  to  the  force  of 
her  enemies.  Such  were  the  tendencies  which  assumed  a  practical 
form  when  some  of  the  allies  began  to  discover  their  mistake  and 
to  try  the  experiment  of  armed  resistance. 

The  epoch  at  which  Athens  appears  most  conspicuous  as  the 
head  of  the  voluntary  maritime  confederacy  is  marked  by  a  strik- 

as  well  as  by  maritime  jealousy  of  Athens ;  while  the  Dorian  islands  of  the  uEgean  were 
sooner  or  later  drawn  perforce  into  the  Athenian  confederaey. 

*  See  the  enumeration  of  the  two  alliances,  at  the  epoch  of  the  Peloponnesian  War,  in 
Thucydides,  ii.  9. 


B.C.  476.]  MARITIME  EMPIRE  OF  ATHENS,  4C7 

ing  incident.  Shortly  after  the  alHes  liad  retaken  Kion  on  the 
Strymon  from  the  Persians,*  they  turned  their  anus  a<rainst 
certain  of  the  old  semi-harharous  peoples,  M-ho  foniu-d  piratic-al 
communities  in  the  yEgtean,  such  as  the  Dryopes  of  Carystus  in 
Euboea,  and  the  Dolopes  and  Pelasgians  of  Scyros.  The  latter  is 
one  of  those  rocky  islands,  possessed  of  excellent  harbours,  which 
seem  made  for  the  home  of  the  corsair.  Its  position  near  the 
centre  of  the  ^gaean  gave  it  importance,  and  an  old  tradition 
marked  it  as  the  burial-place  of  Theseus.  An  oracle  had  directed 
the  Athenians  to  bring  back  the  bones  of  their  hero  (b,c.  47G) ; 
but  it  was  not  till  the  piratical  inhabitants  were  expelled  by 
Cimon,  that  the  search  could  be  made.  It  was,  of  course,  suc- 
cessful. The  remains  were  brought  to  Athens,  and  carried  in 
solemn  procession  to  the  Theseum,  the  earliest  and  still  the  most 
perfect  of  the  splendid  Doric  monuments  which  adorn  the  ruins 
of  Athens  (b.c,  469),  In  that  procession,  the  Athenians  must  have 
felt  that  they  were  celebrating  their  own  triumph,  as  the  leaders 
of  maritime  Greece. 

But  about  two  years  later  the  sore  first  broke  out  in  the  revolt 
of  Naxos,  the  largest  of  the  Cyclades.  The  Athenians  made  no 
hesitation  about  subduing  a  rebellious  confederate  by  force  of 
arms.  The  conquered  state  was  stripped  of  its  navy,  and  its  for- 
tifications were  razed  to  the  ground ; — an  example  to  all  the  allies 
who  should  henceforth  attempt  to  recover  their  independence  (b.c. 
467—466). 

The  strength  added  to  Athens  by  this  conquest  may  have  had 
an  important  influence  on  the  success  of  Cimon  in  the  battles  of 
the  Eurymedon  (b,c,  466).f  Next  year  the  large  island  of  Thasos, 
close  to  the  coast  of  Thrace,  revolted  from  the  alliance,  on  ac- 
count of  a  quarrel  with  the  Athenian  settlers  at  E'ion  on  the 
Strymon  about  the  Thracian  gold-mines:}:  (b,c,  465).  Thasos  was 
only  cQ^iquered  after  a  prolonged  blockade  (b.c.  463),  in  the  course 
of  which  the  Athenians  made  their  first  unsuccessful  attempt  to 
form  the  settlement  of  Ennea-Hodoi  (the  Nine  Ways)  on  the 
Strymon,  which  became  afterwards  so  famous  under  the  name  of 
Amphipolis.  The  siege  of  Thasos  had  all  but  precipitated  the 
inevitable  collision  between  Athens  and  Sparta.  The  Thasians 
had  secretly  applied  for  aid  to  the  Lacedaemonians,  who  were  only 


*  See  chap,  xiii.,  p.  451.  t  Ibi'^- 

%  The  most  productive  were  those  at  Scapte  Hyle  (the  Wood  of  tU  Dirfgings),  in  which 
the  historian  Thucydides  possessed  property. 


458  PJVxYLRY  OF  THE  GREEK  EEPUBLICS.     [Chap.  XIV. 

kept  back  from  a  treaclierous  invasion  of  Attica  by  a  terrible 
calamity  at  home. 

Sparta  had  naturally  taken  the  lead  in  the  settlement  of  con- 
tinental Greece  after  the  Persian  War.  Her  zeal  against  the 
Medizing  states  in  general  was  mitigated  by  the  prudent  mode- 
ration of  Themistocles.  But  in  the  case  of  Thebes,  the  policy  of 
strengthening  the  rival  of  Athens  led  Sparta  to  restore  her  supre- 
macy over  the  cities  of  Boeotia,  always  excepting  Thespise  and 
Plataea.  In  the  Peloponnesus,  Sparta  was  engaged  in  wars  with 
the  Arcadians  and  Eleians,  and  the  latter  peojjle  formed  a  con- 
federacy, with  its  caj)ital  at  Elis.  The  rapid  growth  of  Athens, 
and  the  effect  produced  on  the  Greek  mind  by  the  misconduct  of 
Pausanias  and  Leotychides,  had  already  detracted  much  from  the 
Spartan  ascendancy,  when  the  city  was  almost  destroyed  by  a 
terrible  earthquake,  in  which  many  of  the  citizens  perished  (b.c. 
464).  The  Helots,  already  excited  by  the  instigations  of  Pau- 
sanias, seized  the  opportunity  to  revolt,  and  the  earthquake  was 
represented  as  the  judgment  of  Poseidon  for  the  sacrilege  com- 
mitted in  dragging  certain  Helots  from  his  sanctuary  at  Tsenarus. 
Sparta  was  only  saved  from  surprise  by  the  young  king  Archi- 
damus;  and  the  insurgents  held  the  field  for  some  time  before 
they  were  shut  up  in  the  fortress  of  Ithome  in  Messenia.  In  this 
stronghold,  the  same  which  had  been  held  by  Aristodemus,'^"  they 
maintained  themselves  for  the  ten  years  of  the  Third  Messenian 
War  (b.c.  464 — 454).  The  Lacedaemonians,  who  were  proverbial 
for  their  want  of  skill  in  sieges,  called  in  the  aid  of  their  allies, 
and  among  the  rest,  4000  Athenians  marched  to  their  help  under 
Cimon,  who  had  some  difficulty  in  prevailing  on  the  Athenians  to 
send  the  required  aid.  "  Do  not,"  said  he,  "  suffer  Hellas  to  be 
lamed  of  one  leg,  or  our  city  to  draw  without  her  yoke-fellow." 
Soon,  however,  there  sprung  up  a  distnist — due  to  continued  ill- 
success,  and  perhaps  to  the  Lacedcemonians'  conciousness  of  their 
meditated  treachery  in  the  affair  of  Thasos, — and  the  Athenian 
auxiliaries  were  unceremoniously  dismissed  (b.c.  461). 

The  effect  was  as  marked  on  the  internal  politics  of  Athens,  as 
on  her  foreign  relations.  Up  to  this  period  Cimon  had  maintain- 
ed his  political  ascendancy  against  Pericles  and  the  still  more 
advanced  democratic  leader,  Ephialtes;  but  the  failure  of  his 
Laconizing  policy  brought  himself  and  his  party  into  utter  dis- 
credit, and  he  was  banished  by  a  vote  of  ostracism.  Pericles  and 
Ephialtes  now  proceeded  to  complete  the  democratic  constitution 

*  See  chap  xii.,  p.  336. 


B.C.  461.]  THE  ATHENIAN  DICASTEEIES.  459 

of  Cleistlienes  hj  transferring  judicial  functions  to  the  people,  in 
addition  to  the  jjolitical  power  which  they  already  possessed.  The 
Senate  of  the  Ai'eopagus  was  stripped  both  of  its  censorial  and 
judicial  attributes,  except  iu  cases  of  homicide ;  and  the  senate  of 
the  five  hundred,  as  well  as  the  Archons,  were  restricted  almost 
entirely  to  administrative  duties.  The  decision  of  judicial  ques- 
tions was  transferred  to  the  Dlcasteries.  From  the  whole  body  of 
full  citizens,  6000  were  chosen  every  year  by  lot  to  serve  the  office 
of  Dicasts,  or  jurymen,  and  they  received  pay  during  their  attend- 
ance at  the  courts.  They  were  subdivided  by  lots  into  ten  sections 
of  500  each,*  among  which  the  several  courts  and  causes  were 
distributed.  Referring  to  special  works  on  Athenian  antiquities 
for  the  details  of  the  institution,  w^e  need  only  say  that  it  popu- 
larized the  administration  of  justice  in  perfect  accordance  with  the 
whole  spirit  of  the  Athenian  polity.  Mr.  Grote  has  well  summed 
up  the  character  of  the  Dicasteries  as  "nothing  but  jury-trial 
applied  on  a  scale  broad,  systematic,  unaided,  and  uncontrolled 
beyond  all  other  historical  experience,  and  therefore  exhibiting, 
in  exaggerated  proportions,  both  the  excellences  and  the  defects 
characteristic  of  the  jury  system,  as  compared  with  decision  by 
trained  and  professional  judges.  All  the  encomiums  which  it  is 
customary  to  pronounce  upon  jury-trial  will  be  found  predicable  of 
the  Athenian  dicasteries  in  a  still  greater  degree :  all  the  reproaches, 
which  can  be  addressed  on  good  ground  to  the  dicasteries,  will 
apply  to  modern  juries  also,  though  in  a  less  degree,  "f  Their 
large  numbers  secured  them  against  intimidation,  and  against 
corruption,  the  prevailing  vice  of  individual  Greek  judges,  and 
secured  the  application  to  the  question  in  hand  of  the  average 
intelligence  of  the  whole  body  of  citizens.  On  the  other  hand 
they  were  liable  to  err  from  the  absence  of  professional  knowledge 
directed  by  the  calmness  of  a  judicial  mind,  and  they  were  subject 
to  be  misled  both  by  prevailing  prejudices  and  passions,  and  by 
the  rhetoric  of  advocates.  Modern  experience,  however,  proves 
that  twelve  men,  even  under  the  presidence  and  direction  of  a 
judge  not  inclined  to  favour  a  popular  sentiment,  are  quite  as 
capable  as  five  hundred  of  strokes  of  wild  justice  or  passionate 
injustice ;  and  the  artifices  of  rival  advocates  would  make  the  less 

*  The  supernumerary  1000  were  reserved  to  fill  up  accidental  vacancies. 

\  Grote:  History  of  Greece,  vol.  v.,  pp.  517,  518.  The  whole  account  in  that 
46th  chapter,  of  the  change^  at  Athens  under  Pericles,  deserves  the  most  attentive 
perusal,  not  only  of  the  classical  student,  but  of  every  poUtician — nay  of  every 
educated  citizen  of  a  free  state. 


460  EI V ALKY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.     [Chap,  XIV. 

impression  on  dicasts  whose  naturally  keen  intellect  was  sharpened 
by  constant  attendance  in  the  courts.  Mr.  Grote  has  trium- 
phantly refuted  the  calumny  which  depicts  the  dicasts  as  delight- 
ing, with  a  sort  of  wanton  levity,  in  hunting  down  an  unhappy 
defendant ;  and  has  shown  that  they  are  most  truly  represented, 
even  by  their  satirist,  Aristoj)hanes,  as  "obeying  the  appeals  to 
their  j^ity  as  well  as  those  to  their  anger — as  being  yielding  and 
impressionable  when  their  feelings  are  approached  on  either  side, 
and  unable,  when  they  hear  the  exculpatory  appeal  of  the  accused, 
to  maintain  the  anger  which  had  been  raised  by  the  speech  of  the 
accuser."  One  effect  of  the  new  judicial  system  is  undeniable ;  it 
gave  a  most  powerful  stimulus  to  thought  and  speech,  and  aided 
that  intellectual  development  which  is  the  most  striking  character 
of  the  age  of  Pericles.  So  violent  was  the  resistance  of  the  aris- 
tocratic party  to  these  changes,  that  they  procured  the  assassina- 
tion of  Ephialtes,  thereby  probably  only  strengthening  the  hands 
of  Pericles,  who  now  began  to  exercise  the  vast  power  which  went 
on  increasing  till  his  death. 

The  insult  put  by  Sparta  upon  Athens  broke  the  last  link  of 
the  alliance  between  the  two  states.  Not  only  was  that  alliance 
renounced  by  a  formal  vote  of  the  Athenian  people,  but  they 
formed  a  new  league  with  her  constant  rival,  Argos,  a  state  which 
had  regained  much  of  its  old  power  while  the  Spartans  were 
occupied  with  the  Messenian  War.  Another  alliance  with  Megara, 
then  at  war  with  Cornith,  gave  Athens  a  footing  upon  the 
Isthmus.  To  protect  this  new  ally  against  the  land  forces  of  the 
Peloponnesians,  and  to  place  her  in  direct  communication  with 
their  own  maritime  power,  the  Athenians  devised  that  new  and 
ingenious  species  of  fortification  called  "Long  Walls."  They  con- 
nected Megara  with  her  port,  JS'isaea,  by  a  pair  of  parallel  walls 
extending  for  the  whole  distance  of  about  a  mile.  It  was  about 
two  years  later  that  the  Athenians  began  their  own  celebrated 
"Long  Walls,"  which  completed  the  scheme  begun  by  Themis- 
tocles  in  the  fortification  of  the  Piraeus.  A  wall  about  four  miles 
and  a  half  long  united  the  Piraeus  with  Athens,  and  with 
another,  about  four  miles  long,  to  Phalerum,  enclosed  the  whole 
space  between  Athens  and  her  two  ports  in  one  vast  fortified 
enceinte  (b.c.  457 — 6).  These  steps  were  not  taken  without  oppo- 
sition. The  Spartans  were  occupied  with  the  siege  of  Ithome ; 
but  Cornith  and  Epidaurus  leagued  with  other  Peloponnesian 
states  to  avenge  the  intrusion  of  Athens  mto  Megara,  and  the 
-^Eginetans  made  a  last  effort  to  dispute  her  dominion  of  the  sea. 


B.C.  457.]  WAES  WITH  COKINTEt  AND  ^GINA.  461 

A  great  sea-figlit  off  JEgina,  between  tlie  Athenians  and  tlie 
allies,  resulted  in  the  destruction  of  the  navy  of  the  JEginetans, 
and  the  siege  of  their  city  by  land  and  sea ;  while  an  attack  of  the 
Corinthians  upon  Megara  was  repulsed,  and  the  whole  detachment 
were  cut  to  pieces  in  their  retreat  (b.c.  45Y).  Athens  now  only 
needed  to  become  the  protectress  of  the  Boeotian  towns,  as  she  was 
already  of  Plataea,  in  order  to  stand  at  the  head  of  a  great  con- 
tinental league.  To  guard,  it  would  seem,  against  this  danger, 
the  Spartans  marched  an  army  into  Boeotia  on  another  pretext. 
They  were  in  secret  communication  with  the  oligarchical  party  in 
Athens,  who  vehemently  opposed  the  building  of  the  Long  Walls, 
and  by  whose  aid  they 'hoped  both  to  frustrate  that  work,  and 
even  to  overthrow  the  democracy.  The  Athenians  promptly  met 
the  danger  by  a  march  to  Tanagra,  on  the  Boeotian  frontier,  with 
the  whole  force  that  they  could  muster  (their  main  army  being  oc- 
cupied in  the  siege  of  ^Egina),  aided  by  some  Argive  infantry  and 
Thessalian  cavalry.  A  hard-won  victory  gained  for  the  Lacedae- 
monians no  other  advantage  than  a  safe  retreat ;  while  the  defeat 
of  the  Athenians  was  compensated  by  the  reconciliation  of  her  two 
great  statesmen.  The  exiled  Cimon  presented  himself  on  the  field 
of  battle ;  and,  when  not  permitted  to  take  his  place  in  the  ranks, 
urged  his  friends  to  fight  with  desperate  courage.  Struck  with 
this  generous  devotion,  Pericles  himself  proposed  his  riA^al's  recall ; 
and  the  two  chiefs  entered  into  a  compact  which  secured  to  the 
state  the  military  services  of  Cimon,  while  the  internal  adminis- 
tration was  left  to  Pericles.  The  first  eifect  of  this  reconciliation 
was  seen  in  an  ample  revenge  for  the  defeat  of  Tanagra.  Only 
two  months  after  that  battle,  the  Athenians  marched  into  Boeotia, 
and  defeated  the  whole  body  of  the  allies  of  Thebes  at  Qi^nophyta. 
The  Boeotian  towns  were  not  only  released  from  the  supremacy  of 
Thebes,  but  their  governments  were  made  democratic  under  the 
protection  of  Athens.  The  Phoecians  and  Locrians  joined  her 
alliance,  and  she  found  herself  at  the  head  of  a  confederacy 
extending  from  the  Isthmus  of  Corinth  to  Thermopylae.  About 
the  same  time  the  Long  Walls  were  completed,  and  the  suiTender 
of  ^gina  reduced  this  ancient  enemy  to  the  condition  of  a  tribu- 
tary ally  of  Athens,  her  fortifications  being  razed,  and  her  ships 
surrendered.  To  the  mastery  of  the  ^gsean  Sea  was  now  added 
that  of  the  coasts  of  Greece.  The  Athenian  admiral,  Tolmides, 
sailed  round  Peloponnesus,  burned  the  Lacedaemonian  harbours  of 
Methone  and  Gythium,  and  took  from  the  Ozolian  Locrians  the 
important  port  of  Naupactus,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Gulf  of  Corinth, 


463  EIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.     [Chap.  XIV. 

A  friendly  garrison  was  secured  for  this  post,  whicli  commanded 
both  tlic  entrance  of  tlie  Gulf  and  the  passage  across  its  mouth 
into  Peloponnesus,  by  the  establishment  there  of  the  Messenian 
Helots  who  had  surrendered  Ithome  under  a  capitulation,  after 
holding  out  ten  years  (b.c.  455).  This  brilliant  career  of  victory 
received  a  check  in  the  iailure  of  expeditions  against  Thessaly  and 
Sicyon ;  and  in  the  following  year  Pericles  himself  was  equally 
unsuccessful  in  a  renewed  attack  on  Sicyon,  and  an  expedition  to 
Acarnania  (b.c.  454).  The  severe  loss  inflicted  on  Athens  by  the 
destruction  of  the  force  sent  to  Egypt,  and  the  depression  of 
Sj)arta  in  consequence  of  the  Messenian  War  and  the  Athenian 
successes  among  her  allies,  disposed  both  parties  to  peace,  and  a 
Five  Years'  Truce  between  Athens  and  the  Peloponnesians  was 
negotiated  by  Cimon  (b.c.  450).  This  singular  form  of  compact 
was  quite  in  accordance  with  Greek  ideas.  A  treaty  of  peace 
between  two  European  states  begins  with  the  mutual  promise  of 
perpetual  amity  and  good- will ;  but  the  Greek  states  came  to  re- 
gard war  for  their  own  interests  as  their  normal  condition,  only  to 
be  interrupted  by  truces  for  fixed  periods,  and  even  these  seldom 
lasted  their  full  term.  These  truces  were  armistices  solemnly 
sworn  to  with  libations  to  the  gods,  from  which  libations  the  truce 
received  its  name  in  Greek.*  It  was  soon  after  the  conclusion  of 
the  Five  Years'  Truce  that  Cimon  undertook  the  successful  naval 
expedition  to  Cyprus,  during  which  he  died  (b.c.  449).  He  was 
succeeded  in  the  leadership  of  the  aristocratic  party  by  Thucydides, 
the  son  of  Melesias,  who  proved  no  match  for  Pericles,  and  was 
ostracized  after  five  or  six  years  (b.c.  444-3).t 

Some  time — but  we  do  not  know  how  long — before  the  death 
of  Cimon,  the  final  step  was  taken  in  the  establishment  of  the 
maritime  enq3ire  of  Athens  by  the  transference  of  the  common 
treasury  of  the  confederacy  •  from  Delos  to  Athens  itself  This 
measure  was  proposed  by  the  Samians  even  during  the  lifetime  of 
Aristides,  who  is  said  to  have  characterized  it  as  imjust  but  useful ; 
and  when  most  of  the  allies  ceased  to  take  any  personal  share  in 
the  aifairs  of  the  confederacy,  and  the  synod  of  Delos  became  a 
mere  form,  it  would  have  been  mere  afiectation  to  leave  the  treasure 
exposed  to  a  bold  maritime  raid,  or  indeed  to  carry  the  contribu- 

*  Hence  the  humour  of  Aristophanes  makes  his  rustic  lover  of  peace  taste  the  truces, 
which  he  has  had  privately  fetched  for  him  from  Sparta  in  jars.  He  finds  a  Five  Years' 
Truce  to  smell  of  pitch  and  naval  preparations,  and  discusses  a  Ten  Years'  and  Thirty 
Years'  Truce  after  a  like  fashion  {Acharnians,  w.  186 — 202). 

f  He  must  not  be  confounded  with  the  great  historian  Thucydides,  the  son  of 
Olorus. 


B.C.  449.]  EEVERSES  OF  ATHENS  BY  LAND.  463 

tions  anywhere  but  direct  to  Athens.  Thus  the  middle  of  the  fifth 
century  b.c.  saw  the  Athenians  at  the  head  of  a  real  empire,  ex- 
tending over  the  ^gsean  Sea  and  the  coasts  of  Asia  Minor,  from 
which  the  Persians  withdrew  about  this  time  under  the  convention 
of  Callias,  and  embracing  the  most  important  part  of  Northern 
Greece.  Besides  maintaining  her  position  as  the  natural  head  of 
the  Ionian  race,  she  numbered  many  Dorian  states  among  her 
subject  allies,  one  of  them,  vEgina,  an  island  which  had  been  a 
great  seat  of  commerce,  civilization,  and  maritime  empire,  while 
Athens  was  in  her  infancy.  It  is  no  wonder  that  she  was  hated 
throughout  Dorian  Greece.  Sparta  herself  had  suffered  the  humi- 
liation of  seeing  her  coasts  ravaged  and  her  ports  burnt ;  and  even 
when  she  attempted  to  restore  the  sanctuary  of  Apollo  to  the 
Delphians,  who  had  been  displaced  by  the  Phocians,  her  army 
had  no  sooner  retired  than  the  Athenians  reversed  the  proceeding, 
and  replaced  the  Phocians  in  possession  of  the  temple  and  oracle 
(b.c.  448).  These  proceedings  did  not,  however,  involve  a  breach 
of  the  Five  Years'  Truce. 

But  it  was  not  the  destiny  of  Athens  to  maintain  an  empire  on 
the  continent,  and  her  reverses  began  from  the  very  moment  of 
her  highest  power.  The  plains  of  Boeotia  were  to  the  states  of 
Greece  what  the  Netherlands  have  been  to  Europe — a  common 
battle-field.  The  battles  of  Tanagra  and  (Enophyta  were  speedily 
followed  by  that  of  Coronea,*  in  w^iich  the  revolted  aristocratic 
party  in  Boeotia  totally  defeated  an  ill-prepared  Athenian  force 
under  Tolmides  (b.c.  447).  One  consequence  of  this  battle  is  im- 
portant for  the  light  it  throws  upon  Grecian  sentiment.  Many 
members  of  the  best  families  of  Athens  were  taken  prisoners  at 
Coronea.  Had  they  fallen,  fresh  efforts  would  have  been  made  to 
avenge  their  death ;  but  their  lives  were  held  worth  redeeming  at 
the  price  of  the  total  evacuation  of  Boeotia.  The  oligarchical 
governments  were  restored  in  all  the  cities  except  Platsea ;  and  the 
country  once  more  placed  under  the  supremacy  of  Thebes,  becaine 
again  the  bitter  enemy  of  Athens. 

The  loss  of  Boeotia  involved  the  defection  of  the  Phocians  and 
Locrians.  At  the  same  time  Euboea  revolted,  and  Megara  was 
seized  by  a  force  of  Corinthians  and  others,  admitted  into  the  city 
by  a  conspiracy  (b.c.  445).  This  last  achievement  opened  the 
passes  which  led  through  Mount  Geranea  from  the  Isthmus  into 
Attica;  and,  now  that  the  Five  Years'  Truce  had  expired,  the 

*  Just  half  a  century  later,  Coronea  was  the  scene  of  the  victory  of  Agesilaiis  over  the 
states  allied  agamst  Sparta  (b.c.  394). 


464  KIVALRY  OF  TUE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.      [Chap.  XIV. 

Lacedaemonians  invaded  Attica  under  their  young  king  Pleistoanax. 
Pericles  returned  in  all  haste  from  Euboea;  and,  according  to  the 
common  belief,  bribed  Pleistoanax  to  retreat.*  lie  then  returned 
to  EuboBa,  and  reconquered  the  island.  But  the  continental  power 
of  Athens  was  completely  broken.  The  revolt  of  Megara  severed 
her  hold  upon  Peloponnesus,  and  laid  her  oj^en  to  invasion.  She 
consented  to  a  truce  for  thirty  years  with  the  Spartans  and  their 
allies,  surrendering  her  conquests  in  the  Megarid,  Tra?zen,  and 
Achaea,  and  submitting  to  see  Megara  return  to  the  Peloponnesian 
confederacy  (b.c.  445). 

The  intei-val  of  sixteen  years  between  the  conclusion  of  the 
Thirty  Years'  Truce,  and  its  rupture  by  the  outbreak  of  the  Pelo- 
ponnesian War,  forms  the  most  brilliant  period  of  Athenian  history. 
The  loss  of  her  continental  empire  was  indeed  a  severe  blow  to  her 
power ;  but  there  remained  to  her  what  might  now  be  considered 
her  natural  dominion  over  the  islands  and  the  Asiatic  colonies. 
The  process  was  now  almost  complete,  by  which  these  states  were 
converted  from  voluntary  allies  to  tributary  subjects.  Only  the 
three  great  islands  of  Lesbos,  Chios,  and  Samos  retained  their  inde- 
pendence. As  for  the  rest,  even  the  affectation  of  consulting  their 
common  interests  was  abandoned.  They  were  avowedly  treated 
as  owing  obedience  to  Athens,  to  be  enforced  if  it  were  withheld, 
but  as  having  upon  her  no  other  claim  than  that  of  protection  from 
Persia.  A  force  of  sixty  triremes  maintained  order  in  the  ^gasan, 
and  exercised  her  mariners.  Her  tributary  cities  are  said  to  have 
amounted  to  a  thousand,  probably  an  exaggerated  number ;  the 
tribute  derived  from  them  to  600  talents,  and  her  total  revenue 
to  1000  talents  (somewhat  less  than  £250,000) ;  while  the  ac- 
cumulated treasure  in  the  Acropolis  reached  almost  ten  times  that 
sum.  Her  commercial  activity  corresponded  to  her  wealth,  and 
she  engaged  in  fresh  enterprises  of  colonization.  Of  these  the 
most  important  were  the  foundation  of  Thurii  in  the  territory  of 
the  destroyed  city  of  Sybaris,  in  the  south  of  Italy  (b.c.  -443),  and 
of  Amphipolis  on  the  Strymon  (b.c.  437).  It  is  curious  that  the 
two  great  historians  of  the  age  were  closely  connected  with  these 
two  colonies.  Tlun-ii  is  chiefly  interesting  from  the  fact  that 
Herodotus  was  one  of  the  settlers :  Amphipolis,  extremely  valuable 
for  the  gold  mines  in  its  neighbourhood,  soon  became  of  great 
historical  importance ;  and  Thucydides,  who  had  property  in  the 

*  One  form  of  the  story  is  that  when  rericles,  according  to  the  constitutional  form, 
rendered  his  annual  account,  it  contained  an  item  of  ten  talents  spoit  for  a  necessary 
purpose. 


B.C.  445.]  PERICLES  AND  TIIUCYDIDES.  465 

mines,  was  banished  from  Athens  on  account  of  his  failure  to 
relieve  Amphipolis,  in  b.c.  424.  This  place  became  again  very 
famous  in  the  wars  with  Philip.  Besides  the  new  colonies,  many 
Athenian  citizens  were  settled  as  cleruchi  in  the  ports  and  islands 
of  the  ^gsean. 

The  political  administration  of  Athens  was  now  in  the  hands  of 
Pericles,  who  had  for  a  few  years  a  powerful  antagonist  in  Thucy- 
dides,  the  son  of  Melesias.  This  statesman  was  better  qualified 
than  Cimon  had  been  to  cope  with  Pericles  on  his  own  ground 
in  the  popular  assembly,  and  the  aristocratic  party  were  better 
organized.  But  the  vast  superiority  of  Pericles  in  debate  was 
confessed,  if  we  may  believe  the  anecdote  of  Plutarch,  by  his  rival. 
Being  asked  by  Archidamus,  king  of  Sparta,  whether  Pericles  or 
he  were  the  better  wrestler,  Thucydides  replied — "  Even  when  I 
throw  him  he  denies  that  he  has  fallen,  gains  his  point,  and  talks 
over  those  who  liave  actually  seen  him  fall."  *  The  time  was  past 
for  discussing  the  foundations  of  the  democratic  constitution  ;  and 
the  attacks  of  Thucydides  and  his  party  were  chiefly  directed  at  the 
pacific  policy  of  Pericles  towards  Persia,  and  the  employment  of 
the  money  levied  from  the  allies,  originally  for  the  Persian  war,  in 
the  decoration  of  the  city.  To  the  first  objection  it  was  enough 
for  Pericles  to  reply,  that  all  danger  of  attack  from  Persia  had 
ceased,  and  that  an  aggressive  war  against  her  would  be  a  waste 
of  resources,  demanded  neither  by  the  common  voice  nor  the 
common  interest  of  Greece.  The  other  point  was  one  which  had 
long  passed  out  of  the  sphere  of  justice  into  that  of  policy,  and 
Pericles  only  gave  by  his  genius  form  and  consistency  to  the 
ambition  of  the  people,  that  their  city  should  be  invested  with  an 
imperial  grandeur  answering  to  the  imperial  state  she  had  usurped. 
After  a  fierce  contest,  the  public  will  was  clearly  expressed  by  the 
ostracism  of  Thucydides  (b.c.  444  or  443),  leaving  to  Pericles  the 
ascendancy  which  was  undisputed  for  the  rest  of  his  life. 

The  only  external  event  of  great  importance,  till  the  outbreak 
of  the  Peloponnesian  War,  was  the  revolt  and  reduction  of  Samos, 
the  most  powerful  of  the  three  islands  which  were  the  sole  remain- 
ing independent  allies  of  Athens.  It  would  seem  that  the  olig- 
archical party,  which  had  gained  the  upper  hand  in  this  wealthy 
state,  was  inclined  to  try  the  experiment  of  real  independence. 
Having  wrested  from  Miletus  the  small  town  of  Priene  on  the 
Ionian  coast,  they  refused  to  appear  at  Athens  to  answer  the  com- 
plaint of  the  Milesians.     Forty  ships  were  sent  out  to  punish  this 

*  Plutarch,  Pericles,  8  ;  Grote,  History  of  Greece,  vol.  vL,  p.  21 
VOL.  I. — '60 


466  PwIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.      [Chap.  XIV. 

act  of  contumacy ;  an  Athenian  garrison  was  placed  in  Sainos, 
the  government  was  changed  into  a  democracy,  and  hostages  of 
the  noblest  families  were  carried  oif  to  Lemnos.  But  the  oligar- 
chical party  succeeded,  by  the  aid  of  the  Persian  satrap  of  Sardis, 
in  surprising  the  island  and  the  Athenian  troops,  whom  they  sent 
as  prisoners  to  Sardis,  at  the  same  time  recovering  their  hostages 
from  Lemnos.  They  then  openly  revolted  (b.c.  440).  A  fleet 
was  sent  against  them  under  the  ten  generals  for  the  year,  of 
whom  Pericles  was  the  chief,  and  another  was  the  poet  Sophocles 
After  an  obstinate  resistance  for  nine  months,  Samos  capitulated, 
and  was  reduced  to  the  condition  of  the  subject  allies.  Byzan- 
tium, the  only  other  state  that  had  joined  in  the  revolt,  submitted 
at  the  same  time.  The  suppression  of  the  revolt  of  a  state  which 
had  ranked  second  to  Athens  in  the  confederacy,  must  have  con- 
vinced the  subject  allies  of  the  hopelessness  of  any  attempt  at 
emancipation,  nor  does  there  seem  as  yet  to  have  been  any  strong 
desire  for  a  change.  "  The  feeling  common  among  them  towards 
Athens  seems  to  have  been  neither  attachment  nor  hatred,  but 
simple  indifference  and  acquiescence  in  her  supremacy."*  Her 
dominion  was  more  firmly  established  than  ever. 

But  Athens  shines  at  this  period  with  a  lustre  far  surpassing 
that  of  empire.  We  naturally  feel  a  hesitation  in  applying  a 
word,  associated  both  in  earlier  and  later  times  with  power  over 
vast  regions,  to  so  small  a  space  as  the  subjects  of  Athens  occu- 
pied on  the  surface  of  the  earth.  But  there  are  other  realms, 
depicted  on  no  map,  which  own  her  supremacy  to  this  very  day, 
and  this  supremacy  was  chiefly  earned  in  the  age  of  Pericles. 
That  statesman,  whose  own  mind  had  been  trained  by  the  acutest 
thinkers  of  Greece,  and  whose  daily  life  was  spent  in  converse 
with  her  master-spirits,  conceived  the  grand  idea  of  investing 
Athens  with  an  intellectual  glory  which  no  change  of  empire 
should  blot  out.  Once,  indeed,  he  had  formed  the  project  of 
making  her,  by  the  willing  consent  of  the  Hellenic  states,  the 
capital  of  a  united  Greece,  and  he  sent  out  envoys  to  invite  the 
assembly  of  a  congress.  Such  a  scheme  was  not  only  premature, 
but  incompatible  with  the  temper  of  the  Greek  mind,  and  the 
organization  of  the  Greek  states.  There  remained  to  him  the 
power  of  making  Athens,  by  the  resources  which  she  possessed 
in  herself,  the  centre   of  the   intellectual   life   of  Greece, — of 

*  Grote,  History  of  Greece,  vol.  vi.,  p.  43.  The  remark  quoted  occurs  in  the 
midet  of  a  most  important  discussion  on  the  position  of  the  allies  in  reference  to 
Athens  at  this  lime. 


B.C.  444.]  GLORIFICATION  OF  ATHENS.  4G7 

exhibiting  her  to  the  Hellenic  world  as  the  home  of  art  and 
letters,  of  philosophy  and  eloquence, — of  clothing  her  with  a 
beauty  worthy  of  the  queen  of  Hellas.  iN^or  was  this  the  unprac- 
tical idea  of  a  statesman  in  advance  of  his  age.  The  people, 
excited  by  the  still  recent  glories  of  the  Persian  War,  elated 
with  the  possession  of  the  empire  they  had  so  rapidly  acquired, 
stimulated  by  the  activity  of  their  commerce  and  maritime 
expeditions,  and  still  more  by  the  sense  of  personal  freedom  and 
the  restless  energy  of  their  public  life, — trained  to  the  highest 
efforts  of  intellect  in  not  only  listening  to,  but  judging  of,  the 
poetry  of  ^schylus  and  Sophocles,  and  eloquence  such  as  that  of 
Pericles  himself, — endowed  by  nature  with  the  nicest  sense  of 
harmony  and  beauty,  and  passing  their  lives  together  in  the 
public  places  of  their  beloved  city — such  a  people  were  more  than 
ready  to  carry  out  the  most  magnificent  schemes  of  improvement 
that  a  statesman  could  devise.  When  such  a  spirit  moves  at  once 
the  rulers  and  the  people,  there  is  sure  to  be  no  want  of  the  best 
instruments  that  genius  can  supply,  and  the  age  of  Pericles  was 
the  epoch  of  the  highest  creative  genius  ever  known  in  the  annals 
of  the  world.  It  is  this  that  gives  Athens  her  unique  position  in 
human  history,  the  intellectual  supremacy  which  was  the  fruit  of 
her  political  freedom.  The  faults,  and  even  the  crimes,  which  th» 
Athenians  committed  in  the  immoderate  use  of  that  libertv  of 
which  they  were  the  foremost  champions,  wrought  out  their  own 
punishment,  and  passed  away  like  the  ruins  of  their  city  and  their 
empire,  but  the  products  of  their  intellectual  energy  rise,  like  the 
remains  of  the  Parthenon,  above  those  ruins,  a  landmark  and  a 
pattern  to  intellectual  effort  in  every  age. 

It  were  a  task  far  beyond  our  limits  to  describe  the  works 
with  which  the  artists  who  flourished  under  Pericles  beautified 
the  city,  or  the  nobler  products  with  which  poets  and  historians 
glorified  the  literature  of  Athens.  The  city  itself  had  been  reb.uilt 
in  haste  after  the  departure  of  Xerxes,  like  London  after  the  fire 
of  1666 ;  and  its  streets,  in  common  with  those  of  most  Greek 
towns,  had  far  more  than  all  the  irregularity  and  narrowness 
which  deform  our  own  city.  But  the  Wren  of  that  age,  Hippo- 
damus  of  Miletus,  found  ample  exercise  for  his  skill  in  laying  out 
the  regular  streets  and  noble  Agora  of  Peiraeus,  which  gained  for 
great  works  of  city  architecture  the  proverbial  title  of  "  Hippoda- 
meian."  This  chief  port  of  Athens  was  also  furnished  with  a 
splendid  arsenal  and  docks.  The  system  of  defence  connecting 
Athens  with  her  ports  was  completed  by  the  building  of  the  inner 


A.  The  Asty. 

B.  Peir.Tus. 

C.  Munvchia. 


D.  Phalcrum. 


ENVIRONS    OF    ATIIENS. 
EE,  FF.  The  Long  Walls;  EE 
the    northern    wall,    and 
FF  the  Southern  wall. 


GG.  The  Phaleric  "Wall. 
II.  Harbour  of  Peincus. 
I.  Phaleric  Bar. 


1.  The  Oephissus;  2.  The  Illssus:  3.  The  Eridanus;  4.  Mount  Ilymettus;  5.  Mount  Lycabet- 
tus;  6.  Mount  Anchesmus;  7.  Mount  Coryilallos;  S.  Mount  Piueilum  (this  mountain  and  7  are  parts 
of  the  range  of  .Eiralcos) ;  9.  The  outer  Ceramious ;  10.  Academia;  11.  QEum  Ceramicum?  12.  Colo- 
nus;  13.  .\eh.irn:e;  14.  Cropeia;  15.  Pieonida>;  10.  Eupvrida>;  17.  Alopece ;  IS.  Larissa;  19. 
Halimus;  20.  Prospalta;  21.  Oeiriadiu?  22.  .a;.\one;  23.  Thvmcetia  ;  ai.  Corvdallus  ;  25.  Xyiiete? 
(Troja);  20.  Heruius;  27.  Oia;  2S.  Upper  Agryle ;  29.  Lower  Agryle. 


B.C.  437.]  WOEKS  OF  ARCHITECTURE.  469 

wall  to  the  Peirseiis,  to  prevent  tlie  communication  being  cut  off  in 
case  an  enemy  should  gain  a  footing  in  the  wide  space  between 
the  Pericean  and  Phaleric  walls.  While  the  safety  of  the  city  was 
consulted  in  these  works  of  utility,  the  nobler  sentiments  of 
religious  and  intellectual  life  were  ministered  to  by  works  of 
surpassing  beauty.  The  theatre  called  Odeon  was  erected  for 
the  musical  and  poetical  contests  at  the  Panathenaic  festival ;  * 
the  temples  of  the  Acropolis  were  rebuilt ;  and  a  wT)rthy  approach 
to  them  was  constructed  in  the  splendid  Doric  Propylsea.!  The 
crowning  triumph  of  Athenian  art  was  in  the  Parthenon  ,or 
"House  of  the  Virgin" — the  great  temple  of  Athena  on  the 
Acropolis,  constructed  of  white  marble,  after  the  purest  Doric 
mould — adorned  with  the  most  perfect  sculptures  in  the  pedi- 
ments of  its  eastern  and"  western  porticoes,  in  the  metopes :{:  of  its 
frieze,  and  on  the  frieze  in  low  relief  round  the  wall  of  the  "  cella  " 
within  the  colonnade — and  enshrining  the  colossal  statue  of  the 
goddess  in  ivory  with  ornaments  of  pure  gold.  How  zealously 
the  Athenians  lighted  up  "  the  lamp  of  sacrifice,"  and  how  strong 

*  The  Great  Theatre,  for  the  exhibition  of  dramas  at  the  Dionysiac  festivals,  was 
hollowed  out  in  the  south-eastern  slope  of  the  Acropolis.  Its  construction  was  com- 
menced about  B.C.  500,  in  consequence  of  the  breaking  down  of  the  temporary 
wooden  erection  which  used  to  be  put  up  at  each  festival.  The  final  completion 
of  its  architectural  features  seems  not  to  have  been  effected  till  B.C.  340. 

f  A  copy  of  the  Propylsa,  furnishing  a  striking  example  of  the  modern  misap- 
plication of  classical  forms,  may  be  seen  at  Euston  Square,  leading  into  the  courtyard 
and  offices  of  a  railway  station.  Equally  correct  and  equally  misplaced  copies  of 
other  Athenian  monuments  are  combined  into  an  extraordinary  medley  in  the  neighbour- 
ing church  of  St.  Pancras. 

^  This  technical  term  needs  explanation.  The  chief  features  of  a  Doric  portico 
are  supposed  to  represent  the  essential  parts  which  were  present  and  visible  (as  con- 
struction always  ought  to  be  in  works  of  art)  in  the  primitive  wooden  edifices.  The 
portico  formed  the  gable  end.  Across  the  pillars  ran  the  architrave  (chief-beam). 
On  this  rested  the  ends  of  the  longitudinal  beams,  the  plainness  of  which  was  re- 
lieved by  a  kind  of  channelling,  called  a  iriglyph  (from  its  triple  stiles  and  grooves). 
The  opening  between  these  beam-ends,  called  metopes  {fierSTrai,  because  they  were 
between  the  beds  of  the  beams,  bnai),  were  at  first  left  vacant :  afterwards  they  were 
filled  in  with  plain  slabs,  and  lastly  these  slabs  were  sculptured  in  high-relief;  affording 
a  splendid  example  of  the  true  principle  of  basing  decorative  art  upon  construction. 
This  whole  surface  ornamented  by  the  triglyphs  and  metopes  formed  the  frieze  (in 
Greek  l,u(pbpoc,  the  sculpture-bearer),  and  its  richness  was  balanced  by  the  plain 
architrave  below.  The  projecting  cornice  (jiopuvi^,  crown)  above  sheltered  it  from  the 
weather,  and  cast  over  it  a  rich  shadow ;  and  above  this  rose  the  triangular  pediment, 
representing  the  gable  of  the  roof.  The  opening  enclosed  by  its  sides,  and  filled  in 
with  plain  slabs,  formed  the  tympanum  (i.e. ,  drum),  and  afforded  a  space  for  groups 
of  colossal  sculpture.  In  the  Parthenon,  the  sculptures  of  the  eastern  or  principal 
front  i-epresented  the  birth  of  Athena ;  those  of  the  western  front,  her  contest  with 
Poseidon  for  Attica.  The  back  parts  of  all  the  figures  are  as  elaborately  finished  as  the 
parts  which  were  seen. 


470  RIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.      [Chap.  XIV. 

a  sentiment  of  pride  was  mingled  with  tlieir  zeal,  is  seen  in  the 
anecdote  that  they  chose  ivory  and  gold  rather  than  marble  for 
this  statue  because  they  were  the  most  exjiensive.  A  curious 
contrast  is  presented  by  the  prudence  of  the  statesman,  who  con- 
trived that  the  golden  ornaments  should  be  removable,  and  ven- 
tured to  enumerate  them  among  the  resources  available  for  the 
support  of  the  Peloponnesian  war.  These  costly  materials  were  of 
themselves  enough  to  ensure  the  destruction  of  the  statue ;  but  the 
temple  itself  and  its  sculptured  ornaments  have  survived,  though 
sorely  mutilated  by  war  and  barbarian  hands.  The  extensive 
fragments  brought  over  by  Lord  Elgin,  and  preserved  in  the 
British  Museum,  where  the  sight  of  them  moved  the  envy  of 
Canova,  enable  us  to  study  for  ourselves  the  most  perfect  works 
ever  framed  by  the  sculptor's  chisel.  The  majestic  forms  of  deities 
that  filled  the  pediments,  and  the  groups  of  Athenians  and 
Centaurs  in  the  varied  attitudes  of  close  combat  on  the  metopes  of 
the  frieze,  are  mutilated  into  the  mere  relics  of  their  pristine 
beauty ;  but  the  exquisite  frieze  of  the  cella,  better  preserved  by 
its  shelt^ared  position  and  low  relief,  still  exhibits  the  joyous  pro- 
cession which  carried  up  the  "peplus,"  or  sacred  robe,  to  the 
goddess  at  the  Panathenaic  festival.  Kor  should  we  forget,  as  we 
view  them,  that  what  are  to  us  the  dead  forms  of  decayed  beauty, 
were  to  the  Greeks  of  the  age  of  Pericles  the  fresh  images  of 
living  realities,  grouped  round  the  goddess  whose  might  had 
saved,  restored,  and  magnified  their  city.  ^ 

The  Odeon  and  Parthenon  were  finished  during  the  first  seven 
years  of  the  sole  administration  of  Pericles  (b.c.  444 — 437),  the 
Propylsea  not  till  the  eve  of  the  Peloponnesian  War  (b.c.  431). 
Other  temples  and  statues  were  erected  at  Athens  and  throughout 
Attica,  among  which  a  special  notice  is  due  to  the  colossal  bronze 
statue  of  Athena  Promachus  (the  Fighter  in  the  Yan),  cast  fi'om 
the  spoils  of  Marathon,  representing  the  goddess  in  full  panoply 
and  warrior  attitude  as  the  guardian  of  the  city,  towering  above 
the  wall  of  the  Acropolis,  and  visible  to  the  mariner  far  out  at  sea. 
The  marvellous  rapidity  with  which  these  works  were  completed 

*  The  models  of  the  Parthenon,  both  as  ruined  and  restored,  in  the  Elgin  room  of 
the  British  Museum,  not  only  give  a  good  general  idea  of  the  edifice,  but  aid  us  in 
referring  the  fragments  of  sculpture  to  their  proper  places.  It  is  impossible  to  enume- 
rate the  many  important  works  written  upon  the  temple  and  its  sculptures.  An 
admirable  popular  account  is  given  in  the  httle  work  entitled  "The  Elgin  Marbles," 
first  published  as  a  part  of  the  "  Library  of  Entertaining  Knowledge."  See  also  the 
articles  "Athens"  and  "Pheidias"  in  Dr.  Smith's  Dictionaries  of  Geography  and 
Biography. 


B.C.  437.]  THE  ART  OF  PHIDIAS.  471 

enhanced  the  admiring  astonishment  which  they  excited  through- 
out Greece.  They  were  designed  and  executed  by  numerous  art 
ists — Ictinus  (the  chief  architect  of  the  Parthenon),  Callicrates 
Coroebus,  Mnesicles,  and  otliers;  but  the  presiding  genius  was 
that  of  the  sculptor  Phidias,  the  greatest  of  those  great  names 
which  mark  distinct  epochs  in  the  history  of  art. 

This  position  is  not  only  assigned  to  Phidias  by  the  concurrent 
voice  of  antiquity  and  the  judgment  of  modern  critics^  but  his 
place  in  the  history  of  art  is  legibly  inscribed  on  the  existing 
fragments  of  his  works.  "We  have  said  that  the  end  of  the  pre- 
ceding century  was  an  epoch  of  transition  from  the  archaic  stiff- 
ness of  old  conventional  forms  to  the  freer  graces  of  Phidias.  The 
last  stage  of  this  transition  is  actually  visible  m  the  sculptures 
of  the  Parthenon.  We  know  not  which  of  those  works  were  from 
the  hand  of  Phidias  himself;  but  we  do  know  that  among  the 
artists  who  wrought  with  him  were  some  who  belonged  to  the 
older  schools,  and  in  the  metopes  especially  there  is  a  marked 
difference  of  style,  some  of  them  being  strikingly  archaic.  In 
others  of  the  metopes,  in  the  Panathenaic  frieze,  and  especially  in 
the  colossal  statues  of  the  pediment,  the  archaic  stifiiiess  has  dis- 
appeared, replaced  by  the  perfection  of  beauty. 

But  that  beauty  is  still  harmonized  by  the  reverential  dignity 
and  repose  which  mark  the  highest  works  of  Grecian  genius, 
both  in  art  and  poetry.  The  imitation  of  nature  has  not  yfet  de- 
generated into  those  forms  which  may  seem  even  more  beaiTtiful 
to  the  uninstructed  eye,  but  in  which  soul  is  wanting :  gods  and 
goddesses  are  not  yet  degraded  into  the  likeness  of  sculptors' 
models.  This  downward  step  was  prepared,  though  not  yet 
taken,  by  the  successors  of  Phidias,  whose  highly  elaborated 
forms,  whether  of  graceful  beauty  or  animated  action,  exhibit  the 
art  in  that  last  stage  of  ripeness  which  precedes  decay.  Of  the 
chryselephantine  statues  of  Phidias  we  can  only  judge  from  the 
descriptions  of  ancient  writers,  such  as  Pausanias,  who  saw  them 
in  all  their  glory,  aided  by  works  which  are  no  doubt  imitated 
from  them.  Phidias'  masterpiece  in  this-  style  was  the  colossal 
statue  of  the  Olympian  Jove  at  Elis,  representing  the  supreme 
deity  of  the  Hellenic  nation  at  the  centre  of  Hellenic  union,  as 
having  laid  aside  the  thunderbolts  which  had  smitten  down 
the  Titans  and  the  Giants,  enthroned  as  a  conqueror  in  perfect 
majesty  and  repose,  and  ruling  with  a  nod  both  Olympus  and 
the  subject  world.  This  idea  is  said  to  have  been  expressed 
by  Phidias  himself  in  words.      '^Vhen   asked  by  his  nephew 


472  RIVALRY  OF  Till-:  GREEK  REPUBLICS.      [Chap.  XIV. 

Panaenus,  what  model  lie  meant  to  follow  in  the  statue,  he  re- 
plied by  quoting  the  lines  of  Homer  which  describe  Jove  thus 
ruling  among  the  gods,  and  which  evidently  suggested  those  mag- 
nificent verses  of  Milton : — 

"  Thus  while  God  spake,  ambrosial  fragrance  filled 
All  heaven,  and  in  the  blessed  spirits  elect 
Sense  of  new  joy  inefixible  diffused."  * 

We  possess  various  copies  of  the  bust  of  this  grand  statue,  in 
which  the  high  and  expansive  forehead,  the  enlarged  facial  angle, 
the  arch  of  the  eyebrows,  the  majesty  of  the  large  calm  eye,  the 
features  full  of  expression,  though  in  perfect  repose,  the  slight 
indication  of  the  nod,  and  the  masses  of  hair  gently  falling  for- 
ward, combine  to  make  up  the  ideal  of  supreme  majesty  and 
divine  complacency,  embodied  in  a  human  form.  This  statue 
was  probably  executed  about  b.c.  437,  immediately  after  the  com- 
pletion of  the  Parthenon.f 

The  nearest  rival  to  this  great  work,  showing  how  the  influ- 
ence of  Phidias  afi'ected  the  Dorian  schools  of  art,  was  the  chrys- 
elephantine statue  of  Hera  in  her  temple  between  Argos  and 
Mycense,  the  work  of  the  Argive  Polycletus,  who  was  as  famed  for 
his  statues  of  men  as  Phidias  for  those  of  gods,  a  statement  which 
implies  the  less  ideal  character  of  his  art.  Myron  of  Eleutherse, 
a  younger  contemporary  and  fellow-pupil  of  Phidias,  excelled  in 
the  more  impassioned  representation  of  athletes  in  the  various 
attitudes  of  the  games.  These  statues  were  for  the  most  part  in 
bronze :  one  of  the  best  was  the  Discobolus,  or  Quoit-player,  of 
which  we  possess  a  marble  copy  in  the  British  Museum,  unfortu- 
nately deformed  by  modern  restorations.  Myron  was  one  of  the 
first  great  artists  who  moulded  the  figures  of  animals,  other  than 
horses.  His  bronze  cow,  represented  in  the  act  of  lowing,  stood 
in  the  centre  of  an  open  place  in  Athens. 

The  sister  art  of  painting  was  approaching  to  the  perfection 
which  architecture  and  sculpture  had  reached ;  but  its  develop- 
ment was  slower.  The  laws  of  perspective,  the  combinations  of 
colour,  and  the  mechanical  processes  of  the  art,  were  longer  in 
attaining  perfection  than  the  simpler  modes  of  working  in  bronze 
and  marble.     The  great  painters,  who  aided  in  the  decoration  of 

*  Homer,  II.  i.  528—530;  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  iii.  135—137.  The  head  of  the 
statue  is  seen  on  the  coins  of  the  Eleians,  and  in  several  busts,  the  finest  of  which  are  in 
the  Museo  Pio-Clementino  and  in  the  Florentine  Gallery. 

f  Sec  the  author's  article  "  Pheidias "  in  Smith's  Dictionary  of  Greek  and  Roman 
Biography. 


B.C.  444.]  TRAGEDY  AND  COMEDY.  473 

Athene,  Avore  Polygnotns  of  Thasos,  and  Panaenus,  the  nephew  of 
Piiidias ;  and  their  works,  though  far  inferior  in  execution  to  those 
of  their  successor,  Apollodorus  of  Athens,  and  of  their  later 
contemporaries,  the  Asiatic  Greeks,  Zeuxis  and  PaiThasius, 
marked  the  same  transition  from  the  old  archaic  style  that  was 
made  in  sculpture.  Their  paintings  were  still  essentially  statu- 
esque and  deficient  in  perspective,  and  they  adhered  to  the  old 
plan,  which  we  see  on  the  early  vases,  of  affixing  names  to  their 
figures.  The  most  important  of  their  works  were  the  paintings 
in  the  temple  of  Theseus,  representing  the  hero's  exploits,  and  the 
great  picture  of  the  battle  of  Marathon,  in  the  Painted  Porch, 
which  has  been  already  described.  The  masterpiece  of  Polygno- 
tus  was  the  series  of  paintings  from  the  epic  cycle,  with  which 
he  decorated  the  Lesche^  or  Conversation-Hall  of  the  Cnidians  at 
Delphi. 

It  was  under  the  administration  of  Pericles  too  that  Greek  Lit- 
erature reached  its  culminating  height  in  the  Attic  Drama,  a  form 
of  poetry  which  Aristotle  justly  considers  as  the  most  perfect ;  and 
it  shone  with  undiminished  splendour  almost  to  the  end  of  the 
century.  We  have  already  indicated  briefly  how  tlie  Greek 
dramatic  poetry,  in  both  its  forms,  sprung  up  in  connection  with 
the  worship  of  Dionysus.  The  distinction,  now  so  marked, 
between  Tragedy  and  Comedy,  was  at  first  almost  accidental. 
Bands  of  Dionysiac  revellers  celebrated  the  praises  of  the  god, 
chiefly  at  the  season  of  the  vintage,  with  songs  and  dances,  both 
in  the  cities  and  the  villages.  But  the  polished  inhabitants  of 
the  cities  demanded  a  more  intellectual  entertainment  than  the 
simple  rustics.  The  songs  of  the  revellers  were  gradually  moulded 
into  the  regu'lar  choral  dithyramb,  while  the  performers  still  pre- 
served the  wild  dress  and  gestures  of  the  Satyrs,  beings  half  goat 
and  half  man,  who  accompanied  Dionysus,  whence  their  per- 
formance received  the  name  of  Tragedy^  the  Goat  Soiig.^  The 
prevalence  of  tales  of  crime  and  fate  and  suffering,  like  those  of 
the  houses  of  Labdacus  and  Pelops,  among  the  mythical  subjects 
chosen  for  the  tragic  chonis,  naturally  impressed  on  tragedy  a 
mournful  and  fatal  character;  while  the  rude  merriment  and 
unrestrained  license  of  the  village  festival,  venting  itself  in  coarse 

*  This  form  of  the  Chorus  was  preserved  in  the  Satjric  Drama,  or  burlesque,  which 
was  exliibited  in  association  with  Tragedy.  In  a  fragment  of  a  Satyric  drama  by 
^Eschylus,  on  the  story  of  "Prometheus  the  Fire-Kindler,"  a  Satyr  who  wants  to 
embrace  the  fire  is  warned  by  Prometheus : — "  Take  care,  you  goat !  you'll  burn  your 
beard  oflF." 


474  RIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.      [Chap.  XIV. 

jokes  and  personal  jibes,  in  "quii)S,  and  cranks,  and  wanton 
wiles,"  as  naturally  made  Comechj,  the  Village-Song,  the  vehicle 
of  fun  and  satire.  Both  forms  received  their  earliest  develop- 
ment among  the  Dorian  states,  so  far  as  their  choral  jjoetry  was 
concerned,  and  comedy  found  its  chief  home  among  the  demo- 
cratic Megarians,  both  of  the  mother  city  and  the  Sicilian  colonies. 
The  first  regular  comedies  were  composed  by  Epicharmus,  who 
was  born  at  Cos  about  b.c.  540,  and  exhibited  at  Syracuse  before 
the  Persian  Wars.  Long  before  his  time,  the  Megarian  Susarion 
introduced  comedy  into  Attica,  at  the  village  of  Icaria,  a  special 
seat  of  the  worship  of  Dionysus  (b.c.  578),  nearly  a  century  before 
the  art  reappeared  during  the  Persian  "Wars. 

The  same  village  of  Icaria  was  the  native  place  of  Thespis,  who 
first  gave  to  Tragedy  its  dramatic  character,  in  the  time  of  Pisis- 
tratus  (b.c.  535).  He  laid  the  foundation  of  the  dialogue,  which 
afterwards  became  the  most  essential  part  of  a  drama,  the  very 
name  of  which  signifies  action,  introducing  a  single  actor,  who 
not  only  relieved  the  choral  performances  by  the  recitation  of 
mythological  stories  and  heroic  adventures,  but  by  carrying  on  a 
conversation  with  the  leader  of  the  Chorus.  This  actor,  who  in 
the  earliest  times  was  often  the  poet  himself,  personated  diiierent 
characters  by  means  of  linen  masks.  Thespis  is  said  to  have 
travelled  about  Attica  in  a  waggon,  which  served  him  for  a  stage ; 
but  the  art  soon  found  a  home  at  Athens,  where  dramatic  contests 
for  prizes  were  established  in  connection  with  the  festivals  of 
Dionysus.  These  exhibitions  became  institutions  of  the  state. 
The  provision  of  choruses  was  one  of  the  "  Liturgies,"  or  public 
services,  which  the  wealthy  citizens  had  to  discharge.  The  citizen 
at  whose  expense  each  particular  chorus  was  provided  was  called 
its  Choragus'  (Bringer-on  of  the  Chorus),  and  it  was  to  him  that 
a  prize  won  by  the  drama  was  awarded.  The  poet  was  recognised, 
solely  as  the  "  Teacher  of  the  Chorus,"  which  he  must  obtain  by 
application  to  the  Archon  Basileus.  Each  competitor  had  to  pro- 
duce three  tragedies  (called  a  Trilogy  ),  to  which  a  Satyric  drama 
was  generally  but  not  always  added  (forming  a  Tetralogy),  after 
that  form  of  composition  liad  been  separated  from  the  regular 
drama  by  Pratinas,  a  Dorian  of  Phlius,  who  exhibited  at  Athens 
in  competition  with  ^Eschylus.  The  immediate  successors  of 
Thespis  were  the  Athenians,  Choerilus  (b.c.  523 — 483),  and 
Phrynichus,  who  first  exhibited  in  b.c.  511,  when  his  choragus 
was  Themistocles.  LLe  first  ventured  down  from  the  regions  of 
mythology  to  a  subject  of  contemporary  history,  the  capture  of 


B.C.  500.]        iESCHYLUS  THE  FATHER  OF  TRAGEDY.  475 

Miletus  by  tlie  Persians  ;  and  it  is  a  curious  example  of  Athenian 
sentiment,  that,  after  being  melted  to  tears  by  the  poet's  pathos, 
they  fined  him  1000  drachmae  for  making  an  exhibition  of  the 
sufl:erings  of  their  Ionian  brethren.  It  was  at  the  epoch  of  b.c. 
500,  that  Jj]scHYLUs,  the  son  of  Euphorion,  exhibited  his  first 
tragedy.  ]S"ot  only  by  his  transcendent  genius,  but  by  the 
improvements  he  introduced  into  dramatic  performances,  did  he 
earn  the  fame  of  being  the  real  founder  of  Tragedy.  His  addition 
of  a  second  actor  provided  for  a  real  dialogue  on  the  stage,  and 
enabled  him  to  make  the  choral  odes  subordinate  to  the  action. 
The  personation  of  characters  was  aided  by  elaborate  masks,  and 
the  actors  were  raised  to  the  heroic  stature  and  dignity  by  high- 
heeled  buskins,*  lofty  head-dresses,  and  magnificent  robes.  He 
first  used  scenes  painted  according  to  the  rules  of  perspective,  a 
new  invention  of  the  artist  Agatharcus.  The  extent  to  which  he 
made  use  of  theatrical  mechanism  may  be  judged  of  from  the 
scenes  in  the  Prometheus^  where  the  ocean  nymphs  enter  in  a 
flying  chariot,  and  their  father,  Oceanus,  comes  in  bestriding  a 
winged  monster,  or,  as  the  poet  himself  calls  it,  a  four-legged 
bird,  half  horse  and  half  griftin.f  He  also  invented  new  figures 
for  the  dances  of  the  chorus.  Nothing  remained,  in  order  to  give 
the  drama  its  final  form,  but  the  third  actor,  who  was  added  by 
Sophocles.  Such  were  the  strides  which  tragedy  made  in  the 
course  of  a  single  generation  from  the  first  performance  of 
Thespis. 

The  improvements  in  the  mechanism  of  the  art  prepared  it  to 
receive  the  mighty  impulse  of  intellectual  life,  which  was  given 
to  the  whole  nation  by  the  Persian  Wars.  "We  have  seen  that 
JEschylus  was  one  of  the  combatants  both  at  Marathon  and  at 
Salamis.  He  was  no  doubt  among  the  throng  who  gazed  with 
delight  on  the  youthful  beauty  of  Sophocles,  the  son  of  Sophilus, 
leading  the  chorus,  lyre  in  hand,  round  the  trophy  of  the  latter 
fight.  That  youth,  twelve  years  later,  snatched  from  him  the 
tragic  prize,  under  circumstances  of  peculiar  interest  (b.c.  468). 
The  approaching  contest  had  excited  such  expectation  and  party 

*  From  the  contrast  between  the  tragic  buskin  {cothiirnus)  and  the  low-heeled  shoe 
{soccus)  of  comedy,  we  have  borrowed  the  figurative  terms  buskin  and  sock  for  the  two 
species  of  the  drama. 

f  Aristophanes  makes  fun  of  this  creature  more  than  once,  and  gives  us  some 
insight  into  its  mechanism.  He  makes  the  patron  god  of  tragedy  lie  awake  half  the 
night  "  wondering  what  sort  of  a  bird  that  yellow  horse-cock  might  be ; "  and  in 
another  play,  an  old  man,  who  undertakes  to  fly  up  to  heaven  on  a  beetle,  shouts  out 
to  the  attendants  to  mind  the  ropes  aloft. 


476  KIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.      [Chap.  XIV. 

feeling,  that  tlie  Archon  Lad  postponed  drawing  lots  for  the 
judges  till  the  last  moment,  when  Cimon  and  the  nine  generals, 
his  colleagues,  entered  the  theatre,  having  just  returned  from 
Scyros  with  the  bones  of  Theseus.  The  Archon  administered  the 
oath  to  them  as  judges,  and  their  decision  awarded  the  first  place 
to  Sophocles,  and  the  second  ^schylus,  who  retired  in  disgust 
to  the  court  of  liiero  at  Syracuse.*  ^schylus  was  again  at 
Athens  ten  years  later,  exhibiting  his  magnificent  trilogy  on  the 
fates  of  Agamemnon,  Clytemnestra,  and  Orestes  (b.c.  458),  and 
he  died  in  Sicily  two  years  later.  With  this  one  exception, 
Sophocles  held  the  supremacy  of  the  Attic  stage  till  the  epoch 
at  which  we  have  now  arrived.  The  very  year  before  that  in 
which  we  have  seen  him  associated  with  Pericles  in  the  command 
against  Samos,  he  had  been  compelled  to  yield  the  first  prize  to 
Euripides  (b.c.  441),  who,  born  at  Salamis  on  the  very  day  of  the 
battle,  had  begun  to  exhibit  in  the  year  after  the  death  of -Jllschylus 
(b.c.  455).  The  two  great  dramatists  continued  to  work  with  un- 
abated fertility,  against  the  competition  of  many  other  poets,  who 
would  have  made  the  period  illustrious  had  the  great  masters  never 
written,  till  just  before  the  end  of  the  Peloponnesian  War,  when 
they  both  died  in  the  same  year  (b.c.  406).  It  is  not  within  our 
province  to  enumerate  the  works  or  to  compare  the  merits  of  these 
three  masters  of  the  tragic  art.f 

The  memorable  year  which  forms  about  the  central  point  of  the 
sole  administration  of  Pericles,  the  same  year  in  which  the  Par- 
thenon was  finished,  is  a  marked  epoch  in  the  history  of  Comedy. 
The  "  Old  Comedy,"  that  form  of  the  art  which  consisted  in 
personal  and  political  satire,  launched  in  humour  of  the  broadest 
license,  had,  like  Tragedy,  its  three  great  masters,  who  are  enu- 
merated by  Horace  in  the  well-known  lines  : — 

"  Eupolis,  atque  Cratinus,  Aristoplianesque  poetae 
Atque  alii  quorum  Comoedia  Prisca  virorum  est, 
Si  quis  erat  dignus  describi,  quod  malus  ac  fur, 
Quod  moechus  foret  aut  sicarius  aut  alioqui 
Famosus,  multa  cum  libei'tate  uotabant."  if 

But  Aristophanes  is  the  only  one  of  the  three  to  whom  the 
common  voice  of  antiquity  has  assigned  a  pre-eminence  over  the 

*  It  is  uncertain  what  piece  Sophocles  produced  on  this  occasion.  It  was  not  one 
of  his  extant  plays. 

f  See  the  article  "  Sophocles "  in  Smith's  Dictionary  of  Greek  and  Roman  Bio- 
graphy. 

X  Horat,  ^.  I.  iv.  1 — 5. 


B.C.  437.]         SPIRIT  OF  GREEK  DRAMATIC  POETRY.  477 

multitude  of  his  rivals.  It  was  just  after  the  battle  of  Marathon 
that  Comedy  was  revived  at  Athens  by  Chionides  (b.c.  488 — 7), 
but  Cratinus,  the  first  distinguished  poet  of  the  Old  Comedy, 
did  not  begin  to  exhibit  till  a  generation  later  (b.c.  454) ;  and 
ten  years  later  still,  in  the  year  that  marks  the  great  ascendancy 
of  Pericles,  Aristophanes  was  born  (b.c.  444).  Meanwhile  the 
license  of  the  comedians  reached  such  a  pitch,  that  a  decree  was 
passed  to  prohibit  their  performances,  in  the  year  of  the  revolt  of 
Samos  (b.c.  440).  The  repeal  of  that  decree,  three  years  later, 
forms  a  new  starting  point  in  the  history  of  Comedy  (b.c.  437). 
Cratinus  gained  the  first  prize  in  the  following  year  (b.c.  436) ; 
and  a  new  generation  of  poets  directed  their  attacks  against  the 
administration  of  Pericles.  It  is  not,  however,  till  two  years  after 
the  great  statesman's  death,  that  the  most  interesting  period  of 
the  art  begins  with  the  first  exhibition  of  Aristophanes  at  the  age 
of  seventeen  (b.c.  427). 

The  dramatic  poetry  of  the  Athenians  must  not  be  considered 
simply  as  the  fruit  of  the  people's  intellectual  life  and  liberty :  it 
was  one  of  the  chief  means  by  which  that  life  and  liberty  were 
sustained  in  vigour.  The  stage  answered  truly  to  its'  Latin  name, 
the  pulpit  /  and  it  discharged  also,  to  no  small  extent,  the  func- 
tions of  the  press.  Quick  of  thought  and  utterance,  of  hearing 
and  apprehension,  living  together  in  open  public  intercourse, — 
reading  would  have  been  to  the  Athenians  a  slow  process  for  the 
interchange  of  ideas.  But  the  many  thousands  of  auditors  in 
the  great  theatre  caught,  as  with  an  electric  flash  of  intelligence, 
the  noble  thought,  the  pointed  sentiment,  the  wail  of  agony,  the 
piteous  appeal,  the  withering  sarcasm,  the  flash  of  wit,  the  covert 
innuendo.  All  that  the  poet  exhibited  before  them  was  invested 
with  the  interest  of  reality,  though  clad  in  the  halo  of  imagination. 
The  gods  and  heroes  who  swept  majestically  over  the  tragic  stage 
were  the  objects  of  their  religious  and  national  faith,  real  beings, 
whose  actions  and  sufferings  claimed  their  deepest  sympathy,  and 
whose  heroic  fortitude  served  for  an  example,  or  their  terrible  fate 
for  a  warning.  At  times,  as  in  the  Persm  of  ^schylus,  the 
events  of  their  own  history  were  so  pourtrayed  as  to  keep  alive 
the  flame  of  patriotic  enthusiasm ;  or,  as  is  doubtless  the  case  in 
the  Eumenides  of  the  same  poet,  and  in  the  Antigone  of  Sophocles, 
their  own  political  institutions  and  principles  were  illustrated 
from  scenes  laid  in  the  heroic  ages.  It  was  the  privilege  of  the 
poet,  as  it  now  is  of  the  orator  and  preacher,  to  teach  many  a 
lesson  and  throw  out  many  a  hint  which  would  either  have  fallen 


478  RIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.      [Chap.  XIV. 

dead  or  have  been  at  once  rejected  if  proposed  in  conversation 
or  in  council.  So  too  in  tlie  Old  Coniedv,  the  persons,  habits, 
manners,  principles,  held  up  to  ridicule,  the  measures  attacked 
with  the  keen  weapons  of  satire,  were  all  familiar  to  the  audience 
in  their  daily  lives ;  and  the  poet  might  exhibit  in  a  humorous 
light  objects  which  to  attack  seriously  would  have  been  treason  or 
sacrilege,  and  might  recommend,  from  behind  the  shelter  of  the 
comic  mask,  measures  which  he  could  only  have  proposed  in  the 
popular  assembly  with  the  halter  round  his  neck.  Of  the  examples 
which  abound  in  the  plays  of  Aristophanes,  it  w^ill  be  enough  to 
mention  the  display  of  Cleon  and  the  impersonation  of  the  Athe- 
nian People,  in  the  KriigJds.  All  the  complaints  that  may  be 
urged  against  the  abuse  of  these  great  powers  can  be  answered 
by  tlie  arguments  which,  in  modern  times,  have  triumphantly 
defended  the  "  Liberty  of  unlicensed  Printing." 

The  age  of  Pericles  was  likewise  adorned  with  the  more  solid 
fruits  of  intellect  and  research.  First  among  its  prose  writers 
stand  the  two  historians  of  the  Persian  and  Peloponnesian  "Wars. 
The  year  in  which  ^schylus  gained  his  first  tragic  prize,  in  the 
midst  of  the  interval  between  Marathon  and  Salamis,  was  that  of 
the  birth  of  Herodotus  at  Halicarnassus  (b.c.  484) ;  and  the  year 
of  the  death  of  ^schylus  is  that  in  which  Herodotus  is  supposed 
to  have  read  his  great  work  at  the  Olympic  festival,  when  the 
assembled  Greeks  bestowed  the  names  of  the  Muses  upon  his  nine 
books,  and  the  youthful  Thucydides  was  moved  to  tears  by  the 
awakened  spirit  of  emulation.*  The  story  is  worth  mentioniftg  as 
showing  the  relation  of  the  two  historians  to  each  other  in  respect 
of  age ;  but  it  has  scarcely  a  claim  to  be  believed.  It  rests  on  the 
sole  authority  of  Lucian ;  and,  besides  that  it  has  all  the  air  of  a 
rhetorical  invention,  it  is  altogether  incredible  that  Herodotus,  at 
the  age  of  twenty-eight,  should  have  completed  his  extensive  travels 
and  finished  the  nine  books  of  his  history.  It  is  far  more  probable 
that  Herodotus  was  still  engaged  at  this  time  in  collecting  the  mate- 
rials for  his  history,  and  in  so  doing  it  seems  certain  that  he  "\nsited 
Athens  and  conversed  with  the  men  who  had  fought  at  Marathon, 

B.C.  456.  In  this  year  Herodotus  was  twenty-eight,  and  Thucydides  fifteen.  It 
may  be  worth  while  to  refer  to  the  common  error,  into  which  we  are  apt  to  be  led  by 
the  venerable  character  of  Ilcrodotus  as  the  "  Father  of  History,"  of  forgetting  that  he 
was  younger  than  Sophocles,  much  younger  than  Jischylus,  only  four  years  older  than 
Euripides,  and  thirteen  older  than  Thucydides,  and  that  he  lived  nearly,  and  perhaps 
quite,  to  the  end  of  the  Peloponnesian  War.  He  alludes  incidentally  to  the  death  of 
Amyrtaeus  in  b.c.  408. 


B.C.  437.]  HERODOTUS  AND  TII,UCYDIDES,  479 

Salamis,  and  Platsea ;  for  he  shows  as  perfect  a  familiarity  with 
the  scenes  as  with  the  incidents  of  those  battles,  and  some  of  his  in- 
formation could  scarcely  have  been  obtained  except  upon  the  spot. 
Other  indications  of  his  familiarity  with  the  leading  men  of  Athens 
are  found  in  his  work ;  and  it  contains,  in  particular,  passages 
bearing  such  a  resemblance  to  Sophocles,  both  in  political  senti- 
ment and  expression,  as  to  have  suggested  the  theory,  which  is 
supported  by  the  express  statement  of  Plutarch,  of  a  personal 
intimacy  between  the  poet  and  the  historian.  It  has  been  sup- 
posed that  Herodotus  was  residing  at  Samos  when  Sophocles  was 
sent  to  the  island,  as  one  of  the  ten  generals,  in  e.g.  440.*  Certain 
allusions  in  his  work  have  led  to  the  supposition  that  he  was 
again  at  Athens  at  the  outbreak  of  the  Peloponnesian  "War  (e.g. 
431).  He  joined  the  Athenian  colony  of  Thurii,  probably  a  con- 
siderable time  after  its  first  foundation  in  e.g.  443  ;  and  to  the 
later  years  of  his  life  there  we  ought  doubtless  to  refer  the  final 
composition  of  his  history.  But,  let  his  personal  connection  with 
Athens  have  been  what  it  might,  his  latter  books  form  a  monu- 
ment of  her  glory  more  imperishable  than  the  works  of  Phidias. 

The  literary  activity  of  Thucydides  falls  later  than  the  age  of 
Pericles ;  but,  as  he  was  thirty  years  old  at  the  epoch  of  the  war, 
the  history  of  which  he  undertook  to  write,  we  cannot  doubt  that 
he  was  now  already  bearing  his  part  in  the  active  duties  of  an  Athe- 
nian citizen,  and  collecting  by  watchful  observation  and  enquiry 
those  profound  observations  on  the  previous  history  of  Greece,  the 
character  of  the  Athenian  empire,  and  the  spirit  of  her  institu- 
tions, which  form  some  of  the  most  valuable  portions  of  his  work. 
Especially  does  his  accurate  delineation  of  the  character  of  Pericles, 
his  exposition  of  that  statesman's  policy,  and  his  faithful  report  of 
some  of  his  greatest  speeches,  justify  our  referring  to  the  age  of 
Pericles  the  beginning  of  the  literary  career  of  Thucydides. 

There  is  another  class,  not  so  much  of  writers  as  of  teachers, 
who  had  far  too  great  an  influence  on  the  intellectual  character  of 
the  age,  to  be  omitted  in  this  survey  of  its  greatness.  We  have 
traced  the  beginnings  of  philosophy  in  Greece  :  we  have  seen  how 
its  professors  formed  distinct  schools,  and  how  powerful — as,  for 
example,  in  the  case  of  Pythagoras — was  their  influence  on  the 
social  and  political  life  of  the  states  in  which  they  took  up  their 
abode.f     The  condition  of  Athens  at  the  present  epoch  opened 

*  See  Donaldson  s  Antigone,  Introduction ;  and  Transactions  of  the  Philological 
Society,  vol.  i.  No.  15. 

f  Chap,  xii.,  pp.  372,  foil. 


480  PJVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.     [Chap.  XIV 

a  wide  and  inviting  field  for  the  exercise  of  sucli  influence. 
While  her  wealth  and  imperial  power  made  her  the  centre  to 
which  all  forms  of  talent  would  naturally  tend,  and  while  her  free 
spirit  pointed  lier  out  as  the  natural  home  of  freedom  in  sj)ecula- 
tion,  the  practical  requirements  of  her  political  institutions  de- 
manded of  her  citizens  a  special  intellectual  training.  The  man 
M'ho  desired  to  take  an  active  part  in  public  life  must  be  able  to 
hold  his  ground  in  the  debates  of  the  ecclesia,  and  to  defend  him- 
self in  the  courts  of  justice ;  and,  in  the  latter  arena  especially, 
the  great  satirist  of  the  age  declares  that  it  was  often  needful 
to  make  the  worse  appear  the  better  reason, — a  necessity  not 
unknown  to  courts  of  law  in  other  times.  The  old-fashioned 
course  of  Greek  education,  lauded  by  Aristophanes  as  that  which 
trained  "  the  men  who  fought  at  Marathon,"  made  no  provision — 
and  it  was  the  boast  of  its  admirers  that  it  made  none — for  these 
new  wants.  The  plan  of  education  common  to  all  the  Greek 
states,  except  those  which  had  adopted  a  special  public  course  of 
training — such  as  Sparta  and  Crete — may  be  described,  in  one, 
word,  as  that  of  making  a  good  man  and  an  accomplished 
gentleman.  Boys  were  placed  under  the  care  of  the  "  paed- 
agogue,"  *  often  a  trusty  slave,  whose  office  it  was  to  keep  a  con- 
stant watch  over  their  safety  and  their  behaviour ;  his  only  part  in 
their  school  education  was  to  conduct  them  to  and  from  the  school. 
There  they  were  first  taught  to  read  Homer  and  then  to  commit  to 
memory  passages  from  the  old  poets,  chosen  for  the  sake  of  their 
moral  precepts.  Music,  singing,  and  dancing,  were  taught  not 
only  as  essential  accomplishments,  fitting  a  man  to  take  part  in 
the  public  choruses  as  well  as  to  amuse  himself  and  his  friends 
in  private  life,  but  as  tending  to  bring  his  whole  nature  into  an 
harmonious  balance.  Gymnastic  exercises  were  practised  with 
the  utmost  care  and  regularity,  under  the  eye  of  the  pfedagogue, 
as  the  means  of  keeping  up  that  perfect  physical  condition  which 
the  Greeks  rightly  regarded  as  essential  to  usefulness  as  well  as 
happiness,  the  "  mens  sana  in  corpore  sanoT  These  exercises  were 
moreover  a  training  for  the  military  duties  which  every  citizen 
had  to  discharge,  and  for  those  contests  in  the  public  games,  suc- 
cess in  which  was  the  highest  honour  he  could  achieve.  This 
may  in  fact  be  called  their  only  professional  education.  All  but 
the  poorest  classes — the  labourers  and  sailors — ^lived  either  upon 
the  produce  of  their  estates  or  the  gains  earned  by  the  labour  of 

*  The  word  signifies  "  boy-leader : "  its  modem  use  in  the  sense  of  a  schoohnaster 
quite  misrepresents  its  proper  Greek  sense. 


B.C.  437.]       TEACHERS  OF  PHILOSOPHY  AT  ATHENS.  481 

their  slaves,  and  in  the  latter  way  extensive  manufactures  were 
carried  on.  Mercantile  enterprises  were  engaged  in  according  to 
each  man's  pleasure  or  opportunities,  and  there  was  no  separate 
class  always  clamouring  for  a  commercial  education. 

But  the  democratic  institutions  of  Athens  provided  a  profession, 
in  which  most  Athenians  were  ready  to  embark — the  profession  of 
politics,  a  profession  pursued  to  occupy  a  man's  energies  and  to 
gratity  Ms  ambition,  not  to  earn  a  livelihood.  This  profession 
demanded,  in  addition  to  the  highest  culture  of  intellectual  energy 
and  keenness,  an  extensive  acquaintance  with  the  principles  of 
moral  and  political  science  and  of  the  facts  of  history  as  illustra- 
tions of  them,  and  the  most  perfect  and  ready  skill  in  the  arts  of 
rhetoric  and  dialectics.  For  such  knowledge  the  youth  of  Athens 
resorted  to  the  lectures  which  the  teachers  of  philosophy  gave  in 
the  public  Gymnasia,  of  which  the  principal  bore  names  that  have 
ever  since  been  connected  with  education, — the  Academia,  in  the 
grove  of  the  Attic  hero  Academus, — the  Lyceum^  near  the  temple 
of  Apollo  Lyceus, — the  former  afterwards  the  school  of  Plato,  the 
latter  of  Aristotle.*  The  opening  of  these  lectures  was  in  fact  the 
institution  of  the  University  of  Athens — an  university  in  the  proper 
sense  of  the  word — such  as  the  universities  of  modern  Europe  were 
before  they  became  surrounded  with  the  accidents  of  royal  and 
noble  patronage,  elaborate  systems  of  government,  extensive  build- 
ings, honours  and  emoluments,  and  special  privileges — mere  volun- 
tary associations  of  teachers  and  scholars.  These  classes  appear  to 
have  been  opened  at  first  with  a  far  wider  object  than  that  for  which 
they  came  to  be  most  valued.  They  embraced  all  the  philosophical 
knowledge  and  speculation  of  the  age,  mathematics,  astronomy, 
and  natural  science — such  as  natural  science  then  was, — literary 
criticism,  and  enquiries  concerning  the  foundations  of  morality, 
harmony,  and  beauty,  as  well  as  the  practical  rules  of  oratory  and 
dialectics.  Among  the  intellectual  people  of  Athens  there  were 
always  a  certain  number  who  pursued  the  study  of  philosophy  for 
its  own  sake,  but  the  majority  of  the  wealthy  and  ambitious  youths 
frequented  the  schools  of  the  philosophers  for  the  practical  pui'pose 
of  acquiring  dialectic  skill  and  the  art  of  public  speaking.  The 
teachers  naturally  adapted  their  instruction  to  the  wants  of  their 
pupils ;  and  thus  from  being  philosophers  in  the  widest  sense, 
they  became  Rhetors — professors  of  oratory — and  Sophists,  a  term 

*  Respecting  the  arrangements  of  the  public  Gymnasia,  see  Smith's  Dictionary  of 
Antiquities.     The  third  of  the  three  great  Attic  Gymnasia,  that  of  Cynosarges,  had 
not  the  fortmie  to  attain  celebrity  as  a  philosophic  school. 
VOL.  I. — 31 


482  RIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.      [Chap.  XIV. 

which  properly  denotes  one  who  himself  possesses,  and  who  makes 
it  his  business  to  communicate  to  others,  skill  and  cleverness  in 
any  department  of  knowledge  or  in  any  special  art.* 

So  far  from  the  name  of  Sophist  involving  any  reproach,  it  was 
adopted  by  the  first  man  who  became  celebrated  under  the  title 
(Protagoras  of  Abdera),  as  his  own  professional  description.  Its 
exact  force  may  be  perliaps  defined  by  saying  that  the  philosopher 
was  the  enquirer,  the  sophist  the  teacher.  There  was  nothing 
essentially  immoral  or  dishonest  in  the  profession  or  in  the  teach- 
ing of  the  Sophists.  One  of  the  most  popular  fables  handed  down 
to  us  from  antiquity  in  praise  of  a  virtuous  life — the  choice  of  the 
youthful  Hercules  between  the  invitations  of  Virtue  and  the 
allurements  of  Yice — was  the  production  of  a  distinguished  Sophist 
of  this  age,  Prodicus  of  Ceos.  The  fact  is,  however,  unquestion- 
able that,  during  the  period  of  the  Peloponnesian  War,  the  name 
of  Sophist,  and  the  class  of  teachers  it  denoted,  fell  into  that 
reproach  which  we  see  reflected  in  the  opposition  of  Socrates  and 
the  satire  of  Aristophanes.  "We  say  reflected,  for  it  is  incredible 
that  the  philosopher  and  the  comedian  should  have  been  able  to 
create  so  strong  a  prejudice,  had  it  not  begun  to  work  already  in 
the  popular  sentiment ;  but  neither  can  it  be  denied  that  both 
were  leaders,  and  not  merely  followers,  of  this  sentiment.'  Pour 
causes  chiefly  tended  to  bring  the  Sophists  into  disrepute.  One 
was  their  receiving  pay  for  their  lessons.f  According  to  our  modem 
ideas,  this  would  only  place  them  in  the  position  of  professional 
men,  earning  an  honourable  livelihood  from  their  profession. 
But  such  a  view  of  the  position  of  a  public  teacher  was  as  yet 
foreign  to  the  Greek  mind.  Men  of  letters  might  take,  without 
disgrace,  the  honorary  rewards  which  princes  and  states  heaped 
upon  them :  and  might  calculate  upon  them  with  the  certainty 
of  Simonides,  who,  when  shipwrecked,  cared  not  to  save  his 
goods :  "  For,"  said  he,  "  I  carry  my  property  with  me."  But 
when  direct  payment  was  not  only  received,  but  demanded, 
for  lessons  in  truth  and  virtue,  as  well  as  in  learning,  it  seemed 
as  if  priceless  things  were  reduced  to  venal  commodities,  and 
their  teacher  to  a  mere  trafficker.     Next,  though  the  instruction 

*  One  impediment  to  the  clear  understanding  of  the  whole  subject  is  our  association 
of  the  Greek  words  cro^df  and  co<pia  with  our  modem  sense  of  the  word  wis  Join.  They 
arc  more  akin  to  the  word  wit  in  its  old  sense,  practical  skill  and  cleverness. 

f  Trotagoras,  who  first  adopted  the  professional  name  of  Sophist,  is  said  also  to 
have  been  the  first  who  received  professional  payment.  His  fee  was  sometimes  as 
high  as  100  minae  (about  400Z.),  and  Plato  says  that  he  made  more  money  than 
Phidias  and  ten  other  sculptors  put  together. 


B.C.  437.]  THE  SOPHISTS.  483 

offered  by  the  Sophists  was  various,  and  much  of  it  respected  the 
highest  objects  of  human  thought,  it  was  soon  found  that  the 
ambitious  youth  of  Athens  cared  little  for  aught  but  what  had  a 
direct  bearing  upon  their  success  in  public  life ;  and,  as  they  paid 
for  the  lessons  they  took,  the  teacher  had  no  choice  but  to  suit  his 
instruction  to  the  demand.  In  the  case  of  Socrates,  who  took  no 
pay,  and  resolutely  followed  his  own  method  of  instruction,  we 
have  the  express  testimony  of  Xenophon,  that  Critias  and  Alcibi- 
ades  consorted  with  the  master  so  long  only  as  they  supposed  they 
could  gain  such  practical  skill  from  his  lessons,  and  then  they 
immediately  deserted  him ;  but  their  connection  with  him  was 
still  made  an  important  element  in  his  accusation.  Those,  again, 
who  may  have  cared  but  little  for  the  intellectual  or  moral  ten- 
dency of  the  Sophists'  teaching,  felt  themselves  quite  competent 
to  detect  the  absurdity  of  many  of  their  physical  speculations. 
These  philosophers  had  scarcely  an  idea  of  the  inductive  method 
of  enquiry.  Instead  of  regarding  themselves  as  "  the  servants 
and  interpreters  of  Nature,"  they  attempted  to  decide  by  an 
d  priori  method  what  was  the  best  course  for  her  to  follow  in 
each  particular  case,  and  they  brought  all  phenomena  to  the  test 
of  these  foregone  conclusions.  The  consequence  was  that  science 
made  no  progress  in  their  hands,  and  gained  for  them  no  respect. 
Socrates  perceived  so  clearly  the  failure  of  these  speculations,  as 
not  only  to  renounce  them  himself,  but  to  regard  them  as  unworthy 
the  attention  of  the  philosopher.  Is  it,  he  asked,  because  these 
men  think  themselves  well  enough  versed  in  human  affairs,  that 
they  busy  themselves  about  those  which  belong  to  the  gods  ? — 
those  concerning  which  man  can  attain  to  no  certainty,  as  is  proved 
by  the  different  opinions  held  about  them  ? — those,  in  fine,  which 
give  no  practical  results,  for  none  of  those  who  are  learned  in 
them  profess  to  be  able  to  maJie  the  things  they  study,  the  winds, 
the  seasons,  and  the  like  ?  It  is  easy  for  us  to  expose  these  falla- 
cies— which,  however,  have  not  yet  ceased  to  be  repeated — and  to 
point  to  the  lightning  itself  pursuing  the  path  marked  out  for  it 
by  man,  and  recording  his  thoughts  instead  of  destroying  his 
works  ;  but  what  wonder  was  it,  when  a  Socrates  reasoned  thus, 
that  the  common  people  should  despise  the  professors  of  natural 
science  ?  This  is  one  of  the  most  telling  points  in  the  Clouds  of 
Aristophanes,  where  Socrates  himself  is  ridiculed  as  the  represent- 
ative of  the  Sophists,  as  experimenting  on  how  many  of  its  own 
foot-lengths  a  flea  leapt  over,  and  the  like  trivial  investigations.  The 
same  play  affords  one  of  many  proofs  of  a  far  more  serious  feeling 


484  RIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.     [Chap.  XIV. 

than  contempt.  The  speculations  of  the  Sophists  about  the  na- 
ture of  the  universe  extended  beyond  natural  objects  to  the  super- 
natural ;  and  their  opinions  respecting  the  gods,  and  their  relations 
to  the  world  and  man,  soon  alarmed  the  sensitiveness  of  the 
popular  religious  feeling.  Anaxagoras,  whose  abode  at  Athens 
and  intercourse  with  Pericles  may  be  regarded  as  the  beginning  of 
the  great  influence  of  the  philosophers  in  that  city,  was  prosecuted 
for  atheism  (about  b.c.  450).  The  immediate  motive  of  the  attack 
was  doubtless  to  aim  a  political  blow  at  the  friend  of  Pericles,  then 
in  tlie  heat  of  his  conflict  with  Thucydides  ;  but  its  success  proves 
the  strength  of  the  popular  feeling.  All  the  influence  of  Pericles 
is  said  to  have  hardly  saved  the  life  of  Anaxagoras,  who  was  con- 
demned in  a  fine  of  five  talents  (more  than  lOOOZ.),  and  banished 
from  Athens.  A  like  charge  was  brought  against  Protagoras  for 
his  book  on  the  gods,  which  began  with  the  sentence,  "  Concern- 
ing the  gods,  I  am  unable  to  discover  whether  they  exist  or  do  not 
exist ;  "  and  he  too  is  said  to  have  been  banished  from  Athens 
(b.c.  411).*  The  fate  of  other  Sophists  is  doubtful ;  but  the  climax 
of  the  feeling  against  the  whole  body  of  philosophers  is  seen  iu 
the  condemnation  of  Socrates  on  the  twofold  charge,  of  not  believ- 
ing in  the  gods  believed  in  by  the  city,  and  of  con-upting  the  young 
men.  The  chief  part  of  the  history  of  the  Sophists,  and  of  the 
contests  held  with  them  by  Socrates  on  the  one  hand,  and  by  the 
comic  poets  on  the  other,  belongs  to  the  period  of  the  Pelopon- 
nesian  War,  the  age  when  Protagoras,  Prodicus,  Ilippias,  and 
Gorgias  chiefly  flourished  at  Athens.  But  the  influence  of  the 
philosophers  who  preceded  the  Sophists  properly  so  called  is  seen 
in  the  intimacy  of  Anaxagoras  with  Pericles ;  and  Protagoras, 
the  first  of  the  latter  class,  was  already  at  Athens  before  b.c.  445, 
as  he  drew  up  a  code  of  laws  for  the  new  colony  of  Thurii,  which 
was  sent  out  in  that  year. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  Athens  in  the  age  of  Pericles ;  and 
the  whole  history  of  the  world  does  not  offer  a  more  striking 
example  of  the  intellectual  perfection  to  which  it  is  given  to  man 
to  attain  by  the  powers  of  a  high  natural  organization,  acting 
with  the  unfettered  energies  secured  by  political  freedom,  and 
impelled,  first  by  the  efforts  needful  to  secure  that  freedom,  and 
further,  by  the  conscious  pride  of  empire.  But  there  is  a  terrible 
reverse  to  the  picture  in  the  moral  condition  of  the  people  ;  for 
they  also  hold  forth  an  example  of  the  general  truth,  that  the 

*  The  date  of  this  prosecution,  just  after  the  aristocratic  revolution,  indicates  that, 
like  those  of  Anaxagoras  and  Socrates,  it  was  not  unconnected  with  party  politics. 


B.C.  435.]        CAUSES  OF  THE  PELOPONNESIAN  WAE.  485 

selfish  cultivation  of  intellectual  and  aesthetic  enjoyment  is  a 
source  of  moral  weakness,  and  not  of  strength.  All  the  outward 
glories  of  Athens  must  not  blind  us  to  the  personal  and  political 
profligacy  which  are  attested  both  by  her  history  and  her  litera- 
ture. We  may  be  excused  from  dwelling  upon  the  details,  not 
only  from  their  repulsive  nature,  but  because  they  can  only  be 
properly  understood  through  a  study  of  the  contemporary  authors. 
Meanwhile  we  have  to  regard  the  feelings  which  the  empire  of 
Athens  produced  among  her  jealous  rivals,  and  to  trace  the 
progress  of  the  destructive  war  which  was  waged  for  her 
liumiliation. 

The  state  of  things  in  Greece,  recognised  by  the  Thirty  Years' 
Truce,  in  b.c.  445,  was  that  of  the  two  great  confederacies  we 
have  described,  each  invested  with  the  power  of  chastising  its 
rebellious  members.  The  distinct  acknowledgment  of  this  power,  in 
the  refusal  of  the  Peloponnesian  allies  to  aid  Samos  in  her  revolt 
against  Athens  (b.c.  440),  was  brought  about  mainly  through  the 
influence  of  Corinth.*  This  state,  though  after  the  conquest  of 
-^gina  the  chief  rival  of  Athens  on  the  sea,  had  for  that  very 
reason  the  strongest  motive  to  uphold  a  principle  essential  for  the 
maintenance  of  her  own  maritime  empire,  as  the  case  of  Corcyra 
soon  proved.  But  all  this  was  changed  by  an  infraction  of  the 
principle  on  the  part  of  Athens  herself,  and  that  at  the  expense 
of  Corinth. 

We  have  already  noticed  the  ancient  rivalry  between  Corinth 
and  her  powerful  colony  Corcyra,  the  modern  Corfu.  In  the  year 
B.C.  435,  a  fresh  quarrel  broke  out  concerning  the  city  of  Epi- 
damnus  (the  later  Dyrrachium),  on  the  mainland  of  Epirus.f 
The  contest  between  the  Few  and  the  Many,  almost  universal  in 
the  Grecian  states,  had  ended  at  Epidamnus  in  the  expulsion  of 
the  oligarchical  party.  The  exiles  joined  with  the  barbarian 
Illyrians  in  harassing  the  city  by  sea  and  land ;  and  the  Epidam- 
nians,  having  in  vain  applied  to  Corcyra  for  aid  in  their  distress, 
complained  to  Corinth,  their  original  metropolis,  offering  to  place 
the  city  in  her  hands.  The  acceptance  of  this  offer,  accompanied 
by  the  sending  out  of  a  new  body  of  colonists  to  Epidamnus,  led 
to  open  war  between  the  Corinthians  and  Corcyrteans.  The  latter 
were  victorious  in  a  great  sea-fight,  and  they  laid  siege  to  Epi- 
damnus. Resolved  to  retrieve  the  disaster,  and  to  subdue  her 
ancient  enemy,  Corinth  employed  the  two  following  years  in 
immense  preparations  (b.c.  434 — 433).  The  danger  of  the 
*  Thucydides,  i.  40.  \  Comp.  chap,  xii.,  p,  359. 


480  RIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.      [Chap.  XIV. 

Corcyraeans  was  increased  by  tlieir  isolated  position,  tor  tbey  had 
not  yet  joined  the  confederacy  either  of  Sparta  or  of  Athens. 
In  the  former,  Corinth  had  an  influence  only  second  to  that  of 
Sparta  herself,  and  the  only  course  that  remained  was  to  seek  the 
Athenian  alliance.  JJoth  parties  sent  envoys  to  Athens;  the 
Corcyraeans  to  sue  for  the  alliance,  the  Corinthians  to  deprecate 
it  as  alike  impolitic  and  unjust.  Thucydides  expends  all  his 
power  on  the  report,  or  rather  composition,  of  the  speeches 
delivered  on  this  occasion  before  the  ecclesia ;  *  and  it  is  inter- 
esting to  find  the  subsequent  policy  of  Athens  shadowed  forth  in 
a  main  argument  used  by  the  Corcyraeans,  that  their  island  would 
form  the  starting-point  for  an  expedition  against  the  Dorians  of 
Sicily.  The  Corinthians  urged  the  arguments  of  their  ovra.  recent 
services  to  Athens,  of  good  faith  to  the  existing  truce,  and  of  the 
danger  of  a  war  with  the  Peloponnesian  confederacy ;  but  all  this 
availed  little  against  the  tempting  offer  of  the  Corcyraian  nav}\ 
The  decision  which  was  taken  under  the  advice  of  Pericles  is  an 
indication  of  the  course  to  which  Athens  was  now  committed,  of 
extending  her  empire  by  all  possible  means.  At  first,  indeed,  she 
only  formed  a  defensive  alliance  with  the  Corcyraeans,  and  sent  a 
small  squadron  of  ten  ships  to  their  aid.  These  w'ere  followed  by 
a  reinforcement  of  twenty  more,  which  arrived  so  opportunely  as 
to  save  the  Corcyraeans  from  utter  defeat  in  a  great  naval  battle 
with  the  Corinthians  (b.c.  432). 

For  the  aid  thus  furnished  to  her  enemies  in  the  Ionian  Sea, 
Corinth  sought  revenge  in  another  quarter.  The  colonies  on  tlie 
Chalcidian  peninsula,  in  the  north-west  comer  of  the  ^gaean, 
belonged  to  the  Athenian  empire,  and  Perdiccas,  the  king  of  the 
adjacent  land  of  Macedonia,  had  till  lately  been  her  firm  ally. 
But  the  aid  given  by  Athens  to  his  brothers,  Philip  and  Derdas, 
in  maintaining  the  position  of  independent  princes,  alienated 
Perdiccas.  lie  joined  with  Corinth  in  exciting  disafiection  among 
the  Chalcidian  cities,  and  formed  the  scheme  of  collecting  the 

*  The  speeches  in  this  and  other  cases,  which  form  so  important  a  portion  of  the 
work  of  Thucydides,  must  generally  be  regarded  as,  in  form,  the  composition  of  the 
historian;  though  in  some,  those  of  Pericles  in  particular,  there  are  pccuharitiea  of 
style,  which  suggest  a  pretty  close  adherence  to  the  speech  actually  delivered.  We 
have  the  historian's  own  testimony  that  he  aimed  at  a  faithful  report  of  these  speeches, 
some  of  which  he  had  heard  himself;  but  that,  when  this  was  impracticable,  he  put 
into  the  speakers'  mouths  what  he  thought  suitable  to  the  occasion.  (Thuc.  i.  22.) 
The  speeches  composed  on  the  latter  principle  are,  therefore,  the  vehicles  of  his  own 
profound  views  concerning  the  moving  principles  of  Grecian  politics  at  the  great 
crisis  recorded  in  his  historv. 


B.C.  432.]  THE  ALLIES  COMPLAIN"  TO  SPAETA.  487 

peoj)le  of  the  coast  into  tlie  strong  inland  city  of  Olyntlius,  wliicli 
dates  its  importance  from  this  epoch.  To  counteract  these  move- 
ments, the  Athenians  sent  an  armament  to  the  Thermaic  Gulf, 
and  took  measures  to  secure  Potidsea,  which,  as  being  a  colony 
of  Corinth,  was  justly  suspected  of  disloyalty.  The  Potidseans 
openly  revolted,  and  applied  for  help  both  to  Corinth,  as  their 
metropolis,  and  to  Sparta,  as  the  head  of  the  Peloponnesian  con- 
federacy. A  direct  collision  ensued  between  the  Athenians  and 
the  Corinthians,  who  had  sent  a  force  to  aid  the  Chaleidian  insur- 
gents, in  which  the  former  gained  the  victory ;  and  the  blockade 
of  Potidsea  was  fonned  (b.c.  432).  Thus  had  the  great  maritime 
powers  of  Corinth  and  Athens  come  into  collision  on  both  sides 
of  the  peninsula,  to  the  decided  disadvantage  of  the  former.  Her 
pacific  policy  was  now  transformed  into  the  most  bitter  hatred, 
and  she  set  herself  to  draw  the  whole  Peloponnesian  confederacy 
into  war  with  Athens. 

All  matters  which  affected  the  common  interests  of  the  con- 
federacy, and  questions  of  peace  and  war  in  particular,  were  first 
debated  by  the  Spartans  in  their  own  assembly.  If  their  decision 
involved  a  common  course  of  action,  a  congress  of  the  allies  was 
convened  to  determine  whether  it  should  be  pursued ;  and  in  such 
a  congress  each  state  had  an  equal  vote.  We  are  again  indebted 
to  Thucydides  for  a  full  report  of  these  proceedings  in  the  present 
case,  the  interest  of  which  is  greatly  increased  by  the  introduction 
of  certain  Athenian  envoys,  who  happened  to  be  present  at  Sparta 
on  other  business,  when  the  first  assembly  was  held.  Besides  the 
Corinthians,  there  were  envoys  from  the  Megarians,  who  had  been 
reduced  to  deep  distress  by  a  decree  excluding  them  from  all  the 
ports  and  markets  of  the  Athenian  empire :  the  ^ginetans,  though 
not  openly  represented,  through  fear  of  Athens,  found  means  of 
preferring  the  complaint,  that  they  were  deprived  of  the  self- 
government  stipulated  for  them  in  the  truce :  and  others  of  the 
allies  made  other  accusations  against  Athens,  as  the  common 
tyrant  of  Greece.  When  all  these  had  been  suffered  to  sharpen 
the  indignation  of  the  Lacedaemonians,  the  Corinthians  came 
forward  last  with  their  elaborate  indictment,  to  which  the  Athe- 
nian envoys  made  a  characteristic  reply.  The  speech  of  the 
Corinthians  dwells  mainly  on  the  aggressive  policy  and  restless 
activity  of  Athens,  with  which  they  contrast  the  habitual  sluggish- 
ness of  Sparta ;  and,  while  upbraiding  her  for  suffering  the  evil  to 
grow  to  such  a  height,  they  hint  at  the  necessity  of  seeking  another 
alliance.    The  Athenians  plead  their  services  in  the  Persian  Wars ; 


488  RIVALRY  OF  THE  GRErK  REPUBLICS.      [Chap.  XIV. 

they  urge  that  the  imperial  power,  whieli  lias  excited  such  envy, 
was  at  first  gained  without  their  ow'n  seeking,  and  that  its  reten- 
tion had  become  a  matter  of  self-preservation ;  instead  of  blame, 
tliey  claim  praise  for  having  abused  their  power  so  little;  as  for 
the  odium  they  had  incurred,  it  was  the  inseparable  result  of  a 
sovereign  power  which  had  to  be  maintained  by  force,  and  it  would 
have  been  equally  earned  by  the  Lacedaemonians  or  any  other  state 
in  the  like  position  ;  and  they  end  by  advising  that  the  matters  in 
dispute  should  be  settled  by  negotiation.  The  historian  then  ex- 
hibits, with  consummate  art — or  else  with  a  close  adherence  to 
what  was  actually  said — the  two  sentiments  which  divided  the 
Spartan  mind  in  the  speeches  of  the  king  Archidamus  and  the 
ephor  Sthenelaidas,  The  former  urges  every  motive  of  prudence 
against  encountering  the  powder  of  Athens  without  adequate  pre- 
paration and  new  maritime  allies ;  he  prays  his  countrymen  not  to 
be  goaded  into  war  by  the  taunts  of  the  Corinthians  against  their 
national  character  and  policy,  a  steady  adherence  to  which  had 
gained  for  them  a  long  possession  of  gloiy  and  independence ;  in 
fine,  he  advises  that  negotiation  should  be  tried,  but  that  war  should 
be  prepared  for.  Lastly,  the  ephor  Sthenelaidas  put  the  question,  in 
a  speech  of  Laconic  brevity,  which  evidently  expressed  the  popular 
feeling  of  the  Spartans ; — the  many  words  used  by  the  Athenians 
in  their  praise  were  no  answer  to  the  charge  of  wronging  the  allies 
of  Sparta ; — if  they  had  done  well  formerly  against  the  Medes, 
but  now  ill  against  the  Greeks,  they  deserved  double  punishment, 
because  they  had  become  bad  instead  of  good ;  but  the  Spartans 
were  the  same  as  ever,  the  protectors  of  their  faithful  allies  : — in 
the  courage  of  those  allies  lay  their  strength  against  the  wealth, 
and  ships,  and  horses  of  the  Athenians : — nor  did  it  beseem  them 
to  settle  by  words  injuries  done  by  deeds. 

The  Lacedaemonian  ecclesia  voted,  like  our  own  parliament,  by 
voice,  followed  if  necessary  by  a  cjivision.  By  professing  his 
inability  to  decide  between  the  Ayes  and  JS^oes,  the  Ephor  brought 
out,  in  the  division,  the  decisive  majority  for  war.  The  treatment 
of  the  whole  discussion  by  Thucydides  forms  perhaps  the  most 
interesting  development,  in  all  history,  of  the  feelings  which 
prompt  nations  "  to  go  to  war  for  an  idea."  The  Peloponnesian 
War  stands,  in  the  annals  of  the  world,  at  the  head  of  what  we 
now  call  wars  of  principle.  Its  immediate  occasion  arose,  doubt- 
less, out  of  the  interests  of  the  complaining  states ;  and  Corinth, 
in  particular,  precipitated  the  conflict  in  the  hope  of  saving 
Potidaea.     The  allies  were  moved,  too,  by  a  deep  conviction  of 


B.C.  432.]  DEMANDS  MADE  ON  ATHENS.  489 

danger  from  the  power  of  Athens,  and  by  the  special  peril  which 
threatened  the  Sicilian  colonies,  now  that  her  navy  was  reinforced 
by  the  Corcyraean.  But  mere  policy  would  have  suggested  the 
course  proposed  by  Archidamus,  to  prepare  to  meet  this  danger  by 
a  firm  alliance  with  the  Dorians  of  Sicily.  Policy,  however,  can- 
not fix  the  moment  at  which  fires  long  smouldering  shall  burst 
into  a  conflagration.  The  real  question  at  issue  was  whether  the 
dominant  power  of  Hellas  should  be  Ionian,  maritime,  and  demo- 
cratic,— or  Dorian,*  military,  and  aristocratic ;  and  whether  that 
power  should  be  wielded  by  Athens,  as  a  supreme  state,  avowedly 
dictating  the  policy  and  commanding  the  resources  of  her  subject 
allies,  or  by  Sparta,  as  the  head  of  a  confederacy  nominally  volun- 
tary, but  really  bound  to  her  by  means  of  the  aristocratic  govern- 
ments which  she  was  always  ready  to  uphold  by  force  in  the 
several  states.  The  short-lived  victory  of  the  Peloponnesians  was 
purchased  by  the  loss  of  Hellenic  independence,  after  two  genera- 
tions of  constant  war. 

It  was  in  the  fourteenth  year  of  the  Thirty  Years'  Truce,  that 
this  decision  was  taken  by  Sparta,  encouraged  by  a  response  of 
the  Delphic  oracle,  and  ratified  by  a  general  congress  of  the  allies, 
in  which  the  Corinthians,  while  again  foremost  in  advising  war, 
took  pains  to  point  out  the  measures  needed  to  ensure  success. 
There  was  still  needed  both  time  for  preparation  and  a  definite 
pretext  for  the  war ;  and  a  demand  was  made  upon  the  Athenians, 
that  they  should  expel  "  the  accursed  "  from  among  them.  The 
"accursed"  were  the  family  of  the  Alcmseonidae,  who  had 
treacherously  slain  the  adherents  of  Cylon,  after  enticing  them 
from  the  sanctuary.f  Pericles  was  descended  from  that  race 
through  his  mother ;  and  the  requisition  was  aimed  at  him,  not  in 
the  hope  of  obtaining  his  banishment,  but  in  order  to  bring  him 
into  odium  at  Athens,  as  if  the  state  were  plunged  in  Avar  for  his 
sake.  Pericles  was  fortunately  in  a  position  to  retort  the  blow 
twofold  upon  the  most  eminent  men  among  the  Spartans, — re- 
quiring the  expulsion  of  those  who  had  committed  sacrilege,  by 
killing  Pausauias  in  the  temple  of  Athena,  and  by  dragging  the 
revolted  Helots  from  the,  sanctuary  of  Poseidon  at  Tsenarus.:}:  The 
negotiations  were  prolonged  by  demands  for  the  raising  of  the 
siege  of  Potidaea,  for  the  independence  of  ^gina,  for  the  reversal 
of  the  decree  against  Megara ;  and  at  last  the  Lacedaemonians 

*  In  a  well-known  oracle,  preserved  by  Thucydides,  the  war  is  called  "  a  Dorian 
War."    This,  however,  is  from  the  Athenian  point  of  view. 

f  See  chap,  xii.,  p.  345.  ^  See  chap,  xiii,,  p.  446  ;  xiv.,  p.  458. 


490  RIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.     [Chap.  XIV. 

summed  uj)  all  by  offering  peace,  on  tlie  condition  that  the  Athe- 
nians should  restore  every  Grecian  state  to  indejiendence, — in 
other  words,  that  the  city  should  abdicate  her  empire  and  become 
again  the  weak  and  isolated  Athens  of  the  time  before  the  Persian 
Wars,  while  the  Lacedaemonian  supremacy  over  her  allies  would 
remain  untouched,  because  they  were  nominally  self-governed. 

Inadmissible  as  this  demand  was  in  itself,  it  brought  to  a  head 
the  Avliole  question  of  war  or  peace.  In  the  assembly  held  for  the 
purpose  of  coming  to  a  final  decision,  many  voices  had  been  raised 
in  favour  of  purchasing  peace  by  the  repeal  of  the  decree  against 
Megara,  when  Pericles  came  forward  to  exhort  the  people  to  a 
determined  resistance.  Thucydides  defines  the  position  of  the 
great  statesman  as  "  at  that  time  the  first  of  the  Athenians,  and 
the  most  able  both  in  speech  and  action."  His  ascendancy  over 
his  fellow-citizens  had  lately  been  subjected  to  severe  trials.  All 
the  splendours  of  his  administration  had  not  silenced  his  enemies, 
who  had  made  a  series  of  fierce  attacks  upon  him  in  the  persons 
of  his  most  cherished  friends.  Three  distinguished  persons,  of 
the  most  difierent  pursuits,  all  endeared  to  Pericles,  not  only 
as  personal  friends  but  for  their  intellectual  eminence,  were  the 
objects  of  prosecution  for  his  sake, — the  philosopher  Anaxagoras, 
the  sculptor  Phidias,  and  the  courtezan  Aspasia.  It  is  time  to 
say  a  word  respecting  the  last  of  these  personages,  and  the  class 
she  represents.  The  position  of  the  free  women  was  a  weak  point 
in  Greek  society ;  and  in  the  Ionian  states,  especially,  they  led 
nearly  the  life  of  Asiatics.*  Secluded  in  the  gynceceiim,  both 
before  and  after  marriage,  from  all  objects  of  interest  beyond  the 
narrow  range  of  their  domestic  afiairs,  indiflerently  educated,  and 
allowed  no  voice  in  determining  their  own  lot  in  life,  they  were 
little  fitted  to  become  the  companions  of  the  lively  and  intellectual 
husbands,  to  whom  they  were  given  in  marriage  from  motives  of 
family  policy.  Such  a  state  of  domestic  life  of  couree  favoured 
the  irregular  connections  to  which  the  Greeks  were  prone  from 
their  sensual  temperament,  and  which  the  state  generally  encour- 
aged. The  courtezans  were  exceedingly  numerous  in  every  Greek 
city  except  Sparta,  and  most  of  all  at  Corinth,  where  they  bore  a 
name  which  marks  the  same  connection  with  a  debased  religion 
that  still  subsists  in  the  East,  the  "  sacred  slaves  "  of  Aphrodite. 
This  name,  too,  denotes  the  class  by  which  most  of  them  were 

*  These  remarks  do  not,  of  conrse,  apply  to  Sparta,  where  the  women  lived  in  public, 
and  were  subjected  to  the  training  which  was  deemed  fit  for  the  mothers  of  Spartan  cit- 
izens, and  which  can  have  left  little  room  for  feminine  graces. 


B.C.  432.]  POSITION"  OF  PERICLES.  491 

Bupplied ;  being  either  slaves,  from  whom  their  owners  made  a 
gain,  or  unhappy  persons  whom  poverty  had  reduced  to  this  worst 
of  slavery.  But  there  was  a  distinct  class,  generally  called  in 
Greek,  by  a  euphemism,  "  Hetserae  "  {Companions), — foreigners, 
whose  love  of  freedom  and  distinction  led  them  to  enter  on  this 
sort  of  life  as  an  adventure,  and  whose  intellectual  powers  and 
accomplishments  enabled  them  to  form  private  connections  with 
the  most  distinguished  men.  Such  were  Aspasia,  Lais,  and 
Phryne,  who  are  celebrated  by  the  Greek  poets  and  antiquaries  ; 
and  among  these  Aspasia  is  especially  distinguished  by  her  intel- 
lect and  wit,  and  by  her  constancy  to  Pericles.  That  statesman 
had  been  peculiarly  unfortunate  in  his  marriage,  which  had  ended 
in  a  divorce  by  mutual  consent.  He  took  Aspasia  into  his  house, 
where  she  formed  the  ornament  of  the  intellectual  society  in 
which  he  spent  his  leisure  hours  ;  and  he  lavished  upon  her  son, 
whom  he  named  Per;cles,  the  aifection  of  which  his  legitimate 
children  proved  unworthy.*  It  is  said  to  have  been  by  the  jeal- 
ousy of  his  son  Xanthippus  that  the  comic  poets  were  in  a  great 
measure  prompted  to  their  scandalous  attacks  on  the  private  life 
of  Pericles.  One  of  these  poets,  after  the  banishment  of  Anax- 
agoras,  preferred  a  formal  indictment  against  Aspasia  for  her  part 
in  the  anti-religious  speculations  of  that  philosopher.  She  was 
defended  by  Pericles  himself,  with  a  passion  which  overcame  his 
usual  self-command,  and  his  eloquence  and  tears  gained  an  ac- 
quittal. He  was  less  fortunate  in  the  case  of  Phidias,  who  was 
accused  of  having  purloined  some  of  the  gold  entrasted  to  him  for 
the  statue  of  Athena ;  and  Pericles  himself  seems  to  have  been 
implicated  in  the  charge.  The  statesman's  well-known  probity 
was  doubtless  a  sufficient  answer,  in  his  own  case,  even  without 
his  challenge  to  have  the  gold  taken  off  and  weighed ;  f  but  the 
dicasts  did  not  choose  to  accept  the  proof  on  behalf  of  Phidias. 
It  is  characteristic  of  the  temper  of  the  Athenians,  that  they  may 
have  been  equally  ready  to  show  their  true  respect  for  Pericles, 

*  These  two  sons  of  Pericles  were  named  Xanthippus  and  Paralus.  Both,  though 
carefully  educated,  were  of  inferior  capacity ;  but  Paralus  was  less  undutiful  than 
his  brother.  Both  fell  victims  to  the  great  plague  of  B.C.  429 ;  and  one  of  the  few 
occasions  on  which  Pericles  is  said  to  have  yielded  to  his  feelings  in  public  was  when 
he  placed  the  funeral  garland  on  the  head  of  Paralus.  After  their  death,  Pericles  was 
permitted  to  enrol  his  surviving  son,  by  Aspasia,  in  his  own  tribe.  The  young 
Pericles  was  one  of  the  generals  put  to  death  by  the  Athenians  after  the  battle  of 
Arginusae  (b.c.  406). 

f  Allusion  has  already  been  made  to  the  precaution,  which  Pericles  took,  of  having 
the  gold  removable. 


492  RIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.      [Chap.  XIV. 

and  at  the  same  time  to  Immiliate  liim  in  the  person  of  his  friends.* 
At  all  events,  Phidias  was  found  guilty,  and  he  seems  to  have 
died  soon  afterwards  in  prison  (about  b.c.  432).  It  was  even  sug- 
gested that  Pericles  obtained  the  decree  against  Megara  expressly 
in  order  to  "  blow  up  the  flame  of  the  Peloponnesian  War,"  and 
thus  to  divert  the  attacks  of  his  political  antagonists ;  but  the  very 
way  in  which  the  comic  poet  mentions  this  charge  proves  that  he 
did  not  himself  believe  it.f 

It  was,  therefore,  amidst  personal  difficulty  and  danger  that 
Pericles  stood  forward  to  pilot  the  state  through  the  passage  from 
peace  to  war.  His  enemies  had  not  dared  to  suggest  compliance 
with  the  demand  for  his  banishment ;  but  they  raised  a  vehement 
opposition  to  his  policy.  But  there  was  in  him  that  element  of 
personal  ascendancy  with  which  the  greatest  statesmen  have  been 
gifted  at  rare  intervals  in  the  history  of  the  world  ;  and  his  very 
aspect,  voice,  and  gestures  were  in  harmony  with  his  character 
and  his  policy.  With  that  respect  which  often  breathes  through 
the  mask  of  caricature,  the  comic  poets  found  in  his  dignified 
bearing  and  even  in  the  form  of  his  head  a  resemblance  to  the 
Olympian  Jove,  like  whom  they  represented  him  as  ruling  with  a 
nod  the  subject  world — of  Athens.  AVhen  those,  whom  Demos- 
thenes calls  "  the  multitude  of  the  usual  speakers  "  in  the  ecclesia, 
had  had  their  say,  then 

"  with  grave 
Aspect  he  rose,  and  in  his  rising  seemed 
i  A  pillar  of  state :  deep  on  his  front  engraven 

Deliberation  sat,  and  public  care ; 

his  look 

Drew  audience  and  attention  still  as  night, 
Or  summer's  noontide  air." 

Above  all,  he  possessed  that  highest  power,  of  stemming  the 
current  of  popular  feeling,  as  Thucydides  testifies  in  these  strik- 
ing words,  "  When  Pericles  saw  the  people  in  a  state  of  imseason- 
able  and  insolent  confidence,  he  spoke  so  as  to  cow  them  into 
alarm  ;  when  again  they  w^ere  in  groundless  terror,  he  combated 
it,  and  brought  them  back  to  confidence."  :j:  The  historian  reports 
at  length,  having  himself  very  probably  heard  it,  the  speech  by 
which  Pericles  persuaded  the  people  to  give  a  final  negative  to  all 

*  The  Athenians  are  not  the  only  free  people  who  have  been  prone  to  amuse  them- 
selves with  badgering  a  statesman,  whose  stern  probity  has  won  more  respect  than  love, 
at  the  very  time  when  they  were  admiring  him  in  their  hearts,  and  reaping  the  fruits  of 
his  policy. 

f  Aristophanes,  T/ie  Peace,  B.C.  587 — 603,  with  the  criticism  of  Mr.  Grote,  Hiaiorj 
if  Greece,  vol.  vi.,  p.  139.  :j:  Thucyd.  ii.  65. 


B.C.  432.]  HIS  POLICY  FOR  THE  WAR.  493 

the  demands  of  Sparta,  and  in  whicli  he  laid  down  the  policy  that 
would  ensure  success  in  the  coming  war.  That  policy  was,  in 
one  word,  that  Attica  should  be  abandoned  to  the  invasions  of  the 
enemy,  while  the  people,  collected  within  the  shelter  of  Athens, 
the  Piraeus,  and  the  Long  Walls,  should  send  out  naval  expedi- 
tions to  ravage  the  coasts  of  Peloponnesus.  Well  knowing  the 
impatient  temper  of  his  countrymen,  he  warned  them  against  two 
great  dangers,  with  a  foresight  which  subsequent  events  proved 
but  too  well  founded.  The  one  was  that,  indignant  at  the  devas- 
tation of  their  land,  they  might  risk  an  unequal  battle  against 
the  superior  forces  of  the  enemy ;  the  other,  that  they  might  be 
tempted  to  acquire  new  dominions  during  the  war.  "  I  have  more 
fear,"  said  he,  "  of  our  own  errors  than  of  our  enemies'  designs." 
In  fine,  he  advised  them  to  reply,  that  they  would  admit  the 
Megarians  to  their  markets  and  harbours,  provided  that  the 
Lacedgemonians  would  abandon  their  periodical  expulsions  of 
foreigners ; — that  they  would  grant  independence  to  all  states 
that  were  independent  at  the  time  of  the  truce,  if  the  Lace- 
daemonians would  allow  their  own  allies  to  govern  themselves  as 
they  pleased ; — that  they  would  give  satisfaction  for  all  wrongs 
according  to  the  terms  of  the  treaty  ; — in  short,  that  they  would 
not  begin  the  war,  but  would  resist  those  wdio  should  begin  it. 
But,  do  what  they  would,  the  war  must  come,  and  the  more 
willingly  they  met  it,  the  less  dangerous  would  it  prove.  Let 
them  remember  how  their  fathers  repelled  the  Medes,  beginning 
the  contest  with  no  such  advantages  as  they  now  possessed,  but 
from  the  abandonment  of  all  they  had,  and  how  they  advanced 
the  city  to  its  present  state,  and  let  them  resolve  to  hand  down 
what  they  had  received,  unimpaired  to  their  posterity.  The 
assembly  adopted  his  advice,  and  the  answer  sent  to  Sparta  put 
an  end  to  negotiation.  All  this  time,  both  parties  had  carried  on 
ordinary  intercourse,  not  indeed  without  mutual  suspicion,  but 
without  the  intervention  of  heralds,  as  in  a  state  of  war.  The 
first  beginning  of  hostilities  was  due  to  the  eagerness  of  tJie 
Thebans  to  seize  a  long-coveted  prize. 

In  the  early  spring  of  the  fifteenth  year  of  the  Thirty  Years' 
Truce  (b.c.  431),  a  body  of  Thebans  surprised  Platsea  in  the  night ; 
but,  after  being  admitted  by  traitors  of  the  aristocratic  party,  they 
were  overpowered  by  the  citizens.  Some  were  put  to  death  ;  others 
were  detained  as  prisoners.  A  force  sent  from  Thebes  to  demand 
the  captives  retired  on  receiving  a  promise  of  their  liberation  ;  and 
the  Platseans  forthwith  massacred  the  prisoners.     They  then  sent 


494  RIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.      [Chap.  XIV. 

news  of  wliat  had  been  done  to  tlie  Athenians,  who  put  a  garrison 
of  their  o\vti  citizens  into  Platoea,  and  removed  to  Athens  all  the 
men  who  were  useless  for  its  defence,  with  the  women  and  children. 
This  open  violation  of  the  truce  at  once  committed  both  parties  to 
the  war,  and  gave  a  foretaste  of  the  spirit  in  which  it  would  be 
waged.  Nothing,  indeed,  is  more  striking  in  the  conflict  which 
ensued,  than  the  deadly  animosity  and  mutual  treachery  of  men  of 
the  same  race,  language,  and  religion,  who  had  so  lately  fought 
side  by  side  against  the  Persian. 

Both  parties  now  completed  their  preparations  for  the  war,  and 
sought  to  extend  their  alliances  in  every  quarter.  Scarcely  could 
a  single  city  remain  neutral,  amidst  the  excitement  of  all  Greece 
at  the  collision  of  her  leading  states.  Thucydides  lays  stress 
upon  the  fact,  which  has  so  often  since  contributed  to  the  outbreak 
of  a  war,  that  a  new  generation  had  risen  up,  both  at  Athens  ,and 
at  Sparta,  who  had  never  seen  the  calamities  of  warfare,  and  who 
were  eager  for  its  excitement  and  glory.  The  dealers  in  oracles 
chaunted  their  prophecies  in  every  Grecian  city.  Prodigies, 
eagerly  sought  for,  were  found  in  abundance  ;  and,  above  all,  the 
island  of  Delos,  the  old  religious  centre  of  the  Hellenic  world,  was 
shaken  by  an  earthquake,  an  event  which  had  never  occurred 
before  in  the  memory  of  man.  The  general  feeling  inclined  to  the 
Lacedaemonians  as  the  liberators  of  Greece. 

It  would  be  foreign  to  our  purpose,  even  were  it  possible  within 
our  limits,  to  recount  the  details  of  the  war,  as  they  are  related  by 
Thucydides  and  Xenophon.*  It  lasted,  with  slight  intermissions, 
for  twenty-seven  years  (b.c.  431 — 404),  which  may  be  divided  into 
three  great  periods.  (I.)  A  Ten  Years'^  War,  from  the  attack  on 
Platsea  to  the  Fifty  Years'  Truce,  negotiated  by  Nicias  (b.c.  431 — 
421).  During  this  first  period,  the  balance  of  success  was  on  the 
side  of  the  Athenians.  This  truce  lasted  nominally  seven  years, 
but  it  was  really  broken  in  the  third  year,  and  was  followed  by 

*  The  great  work  of  Thucydides  is  in  eight  books.  The  first  is  introductory,  on 
the  importance  and  causes  of  the  war.  The  narrative  of  the  war  itself  begins  with 
the  second  book,  and  is  brought  down  to  the  destruction  of  the  Athenian  expedition 
to  Sicily,  at  the  end  of  the  seventh  book  (b.c.  413).  The  eighth  book,  M-hich  is  most 
probably  genuine,  though  not  revised  with  the  same  care  as  the  other  seven,  breaks 
oflF  in  the  middle  of  the  twenty-first  year  of  the  war  (b.c.  411).  From  this  point  our 
chief  authority  is  Xenophon,  or  whoever  wrote  the  first  two  books  of  the  "  Greek 
History  "  (Hellenica)  ascribed  to  him.  These  two  books  continue  the  story  a  little 
beyond  the  end  of  the  war  (in  B.C.  404),  to  the  restoration  of  the  democracy  by 
Thrasybulus,  the  amnesty,  and  the  peace  with  Sparta  (b.c.  402).  The  remaining 
five  books  of  the  "  Hellenics "  bring  down  the  history  of  Greece  to  the  battle  of 
Mantmea  (b,c.  362),  the  epoch  we  have  taken  for  the  close  of  this  chapter. 


B.C.  431.]  BEGINNING  OF  THE  WAR.  495 

(II.)  A  Five  Years'  War,  ending  with  the  disastrous  expedition  of 
the  Athenians  to  Sicily  (b.c.  418 — 413).  (III.)  The  remaining 
I^ine  Years  were  occupied  by  the  gallant  resistance  of  Athens  to 
the  fate  which  had  become  inevitable  since  the  loss  of  her  Sicilian 
armament.  It  was  waged  chiefly  on  the  coast  of  Asia,  for  the 
maritime  command  of  the  JEgaean,  and  ended  with  the  taking  of 
Athens  by  Lysander  (b.c.  412 — 404). 

Immediately  after  the  abortive  attempt  upon  Plataea,  the  Lace- 
daemonians summoned  the  allies  to  send  their  contingents  to  the 
Isthmus,  for  the  invasion  of  Attica.  It  was  in  this  way  alone  that 
Athens  seemed  really  vulnerable.  Though  the  confederacy  com- 
prised Corinth,  Megara,  Sicyon,  and  other  maritime  states,  their 
united  fleets  were  quite  unable  to  cope  with  the  navy  of  Athens. 
Active  measures  were  at  once  adopted  to  remedy  this  disparity, 
especially  by  the  aid  of  the  Italian  and  Sicilian  Greeks.  Mean- 
while, the  one  hope  of  the  Peloponnesians  lay  in  provoking  the 
Athenians,  by  the  devastation  of  their  lands  and  villages,  to  risk 
an  unequal  contest  with  their  own  far  superior  army.  It  needed 
all  the  firmness  of  Pericles  to  disappoint  this  hope ;  and  the 
Spartan  king  Archidamus  was  all  but  justified  in  the  expectation 
that  the  mere  threat  of  invasion  would  be  enough.  Before  he 
entered  Attica,  he  sent  the  herald  Melesippus  to  announce  his 
approach  and  to  offer  terms  for  the  last  time.  But  the  Athenians 
had  resolved  not  to  receive  another  envoy,  and  Melesippus  was 
conducted  back  to  the  frontier,  where  he  took  leave  of  his  escort 
with  the  exclamation, — afterwards  so  terribly  verified, — "  This 
day  will  be  the  beginning  of  many  evils  to  the  Greeks."  While 
Archidamus  still  lingered  on  the  road,  to  give  the  experiment 
time  to  work,  Pericles  had  the  greatest  difticulty  in  persuading  the 
Athenians  to  abandon  their  beautiful  villages  and  homesteads, 
their  smiling  corn-fields,  their  luxuriant  vineyards  and  orchards. 
Their  distress  when  cooped  up  within  the  walls  was  of  course  far 
greater  than  had  been  foreseen.  All  the  open  places,  even  those 
left  vacant  from  religious  scurples,  as  well  as  the  space  between 
the  Long  Walls,  were  crowded  with  huts,  tents,  and  even  tubs ; 
and  the  enforced  idleness  of  the  dense  throng,  many  of  whom  were 
unused  to  obey  the  ascendancy  of  Pericles,  must  have  disposed 
them  to  listen  to  his  enemies,  and  to  ascribe  all  their  sufferings  to 
his  policy.  At  length  the  army  of  Archidamus,  numbering  not 
less  than  60,000  hoplites,  was  seen  descending  the  slopes  of  Mount 
JEgaleos,  on  to  the  village  of  Achamae,  just  seven  miles  north  of 
Athens,  and  in  sight  of  its  walls.     This  was  the  largest  of  -;  he 


49G  RIVALEY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.      [Chap.  XIV. 

demes  of  Attica,  and  its  military  force  numbered  3000  full-armed 
men.  Tlieir  rage  at  beliolding  all  their  rural  wealth  destroyed 
before  tlieir  very  eyes  gave  an  impulse  to  the  general  indignation. 
Groups  of  citizens,  gathered  in  every  quarter,  inflamed  each  other's 
discontent,  and  the  eager  youth  demanded  to  be  led  out  against 
the  enemy.  In  such  a  state  of  popular  feeling,  Pericles  would  not 
tnist  even  his  own  vast  influence  to  avert  some  fatal  resolution ; 
and  he  used  his  power,  as  the  first  of  the  Ten  Generals,  to  prevent 
the  ecclesia  from  meeting  till  the  ferment  had  subsided.  Mean- 
while he  gave  some  vent  to  the  impatience  for  action  by  sending 
out  the  Athenian  and  Thessalian  cavalry  to  check  the  too  near 
approach  of  the  ravagers ;  and,  in  pursuance  of  his  own  policy,  he 
fitted  out  a  squadron  of  100  triremes  to  make  incursions  on  the 
enemy's  coasts.  This  armament,  united  with  fifty  Corcyrsean 
ships,  besides  attacking  various  points  on  the  shores  of  Pelopon- 
nesus, took  some  of  the  Corinthian  colonies  on  the  coast  of  Agar- 
nania,  and  reduced  the  island  of  Cephallenia. 

The  endurance  which  Pericles  required  of  the  Athenians  had  a 
natural  limit.  Like  the  levies  of  the  middle  ages,  the  Pelopon- 
nesian  allies  gave  their  military  service  only  for  a  limited  period ; 
and  when  nearly  forty  days  had  passed  without  drawing  the 
Athenians  out  to  battle,  Archidamus  led  ofi'  his  army  into  Boeotia 
about  the  middle  of  July.  The  Athenians  avenged  themselves  for 
their  sufferings  by  ravaging  the  territory  of  Megara  with  their 
whole  army,  united  with  the  sea  force  which  had  now  returned  to 
^Egina, — an  operation  which  they  repeated  annually  while  the  war 
lasted;  and  they  took  a  further  precaution  for  their  maritime 
security  by  removing  the  whole  population  of  ^gina  to  the  Pelo- 
ponnesian  coast,  and  parcelling  out  their  lands  among  Athenian 
cleruchi.  The  Spartans  granted  the  expelled  ^ginetans  a  home 
at  Thyrea.  The  summer  campaign  closed  about  the  end  of 
September,  e.g.  431.* 

During  this  summer  the  Athenians  had  adopted  two  important 
measures  of  preparation  for  the  future.  They  deposited  a  treasure 
of  1000  talents  in  the  Acropolis,  as  a  sacred  reserve,  only  to  be 
used  if  the  city  should  be  attacked  by  a  hostile  fleet.  Till  then, 
any  proposal  to  touch  it  subjected  the  mover  to  the  penalty  of 
death.  This  resolution  was  never  violated  till  after  the  disaster  in 
Sicily  and  the  revolt  of  Chios,  the  firmest  of  all  the  allies,  and 
even  then  the  constitutional  form  was  observed,  of  passing  a  vote 

*  Thucydidcs  relates  the  events  of  each  year  of  the  war  separately,  distinguishing 
those  of  the  summer  and  the  winter. 


B.C.  431.]  PUBLIC  FUNERAL  OF  THE  SLAIK  497 

of  indemnity  to  tlie  mover  of  the  decree  to  use  the  money.  For 
the  more  effectual  protection  of  the  Athenian  possessions  in  the 
Chalcidian  peninsula,  alliances  were  made  with  Sitacles,  who  had 
founded  a  powerful  kingdom  over  the  Odrjsians  of  Thrace,  and 
with  Perdiccas,  king  of  Macedonia.  The  latter  received  back  the 
port  of  Therma  (afterwards  Thessalonica)  from  the  Athenians,  and 
united  his  army  with  that  of  the  Athenian  Phormio,  in  operating 
against  Potidsea ;  and  the  aid  of  the  Thracians  was  promised  for 
the  same  object. 

According  to  the  annual  custom  of  Athens,  the  soldiers  who 
had  fallen  in  the  campaigns  of  this  summer  were  honoured  witli  a 
splendid  public  funeral  and  a  monument  in  the  suburb  called  the 
Ceramicus  (the  Potter's  Quarter),  Their  children  were  educated  at 
the  public  expense,  and  when  the  sons  came  to  the  military  age, 
they  received  a  suit  of  armour,  and  were  presented  to  the  people 
on  the  stage  at  the  Dionysia.  The  Greek  religion  required  a  strict 
performance  of  funeral  rites,  till  which  the  shades  of  the  dead  were 
supposed  to  wander  around  the  abode  of  Hades,  forbidden  to  pass 
the  water  of  the  Styx.  For  this  reason,  as  well  as  not  to  leave  such 
trophies  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy,  the  utmost  importance  was 
attached  to  the  recovery  of  the  bodies  of  those  who  fell  in  battle. 
They  were  burnt  upon  the  field,  and  their  bones  were  carried  home 
for  the  public  funeral.  Two  days  before  the  ceremony,  the  remains 
were  laid  in  state  under  a  tent,  whither  the  relatives  brought  their 
offerings.  At  the  time  of  the  funeral,  the  bones  were  placed  in 
coffers  of  cypress  wood,  one  for  every  tribe,  and  borne  forth  on  cars, 
followed  by  an  empty  bier,  covered  with  a  pall,  representing  those 
who  were  not  found  at  the  taking  up  of  the  dead.  Every  resident 
in  Athens  who  pleased,  whether  citizen  or  foreigner,  joined  in  the 
procession,  and  the  tomb  was  surrounded  by  wailing  women,  the 
relatives  of  the  deceased.  When  at  last  they  were  deposited  in 
the  gromid,  a  man  appointed  to  the  office  for  his  intelligence  and 
worth  mounted  a  lofty  platform  and  pronounced  their  eulogy,  and 
so  the  people  were  dismissed.  On  this  occasion  the  funeral  oration 
was  delivered  by  Pericles ;  and  the  report  of  it  in  the  pages  of 
Thucydides  forms  one  of  the  most  remarkable  remains  of  the 
literature  of  any  people.*  The  peculiarity  of  its  style  is  a  suffi- 
cient proof  that  here,  above  every  other  instance,  Thucydides  acted 
on  his  avowed  plan  of  reporting  the  speeches  he  himself  heard  as 
faithfully  as  he  could.  It  is,  as  ]VIr.  Grote  observes,  "  every  way 
worthy  of  Pericles — comprehensive,  rational,  and  full  not  less  of 

*  Thucydides,  ii.  35—46. 
VOL.  I.— 32 


498  RIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.      [Chap.  XIV. 

sense  and  substance  than  of  earnest  patriotism.  It  thus  forms  a 
strong  contrast  with  the  jejune  though  elegant  rhetoric  of  other 
harangues,  mostly  not  composed  for  actual  delivery ;  and  deserves, 
in  comparison  with  the  funeral  discourses  remaining  to  us  from 
Plato  and  the  j^seudo-Demosthenes,  and  even  Lysias,  the  honour- 
able distinction  which  Thucydides  claims  for  his  own  history — an 
ever-living  possession  and  not  a  mere  show-piece  for  the  moment."  * 
The  general  tenor  of  the  speech  is  to  show  that  the  free  polity  and 
free  social  life  of  the  Athenians  not  only  secured  them  an  amount 
of  enjoyment  of  which  the  Spartans  were  deprived  by  their  severe 
discipline ;  but  even  that  this  discipline  was  a  less  effective  prepa- 
ration for  war  than  the  confidence,  the  patriotism,  and  the  unim- 
paired resources  with  which  Athens  could  meet  each  danger  as  it 
arose.  But  the  speech  can  only  be  judged  of  by  reiterated  perusal. 
In  the  second  year  of  the  war  (b.c.  430),  the  full  force  of 
the  Peloponnesians  again  invaded  Attica  in  the  spring.  They 
remained  in  the  land  forty  days,  ravaging  it  more  extensively 
and  thoroughly  than  before.  Before  they  had  been  long  in  the 
country,  Athens  was  visited  by  that  memorable  pestilence,  which 
is  the  earliest  of  what  have  been  called,  from  their  intensity  and 
their  wide  diffusion,  "  CEcumenical  Plagues."  Of  the  others  which 
have  been  included  under  that  name,  the  most  celebrated  are 
those  of  Constantinople,  in  a.d.  532 ;  of  Florence,  in  a.d.  1348 ;  of 
Milan,  in  a.d.  1630 ;  and  in  London,  a.d.  1665.f  It  so  happens 
that  nearly  all  these  great  pestilences  have  been  described  by 
writers  of  the  highest  power,  that  of  Athens  by  Thucydides,  that 
of  Constantinople  by  Procopius,  that  of  Florence  by  Boccaccio,  and 
that  of  London  by  De  Foe.  In  all  cases  the  horror  of  the  suffer- 
ings endured,  and  the  frightful  picture  of  desolation,  is  intensified 
by  the  recklessness,  the  licentious  levity  and  cruel  selfishness,  the 
disregard  of  all  moral  ties,  which  formed  the  real  though  most 
unseasonable  fruit  of  the  presence  of  impending  death.  Thucy- 
dides, himself  a  sufferer  from  the  Plague  of  Athens,  has  left  us  an 
account  of  it  as  remarkable  for  the  accuracy  of  detail,  as  for  the 
vivid  picture  of  its ,  devastation  and  its  social  consequences.  It 
appears  to  have  been  an  eruptive  typhoid  fever.  Like  the  other 
epidemics  just  mentioned,  it  was  spread  far  and  wide  over  the 

*  Grote,  History  of  Greece,  vol.  vi.,  pp.  191-2. 

\  We  might  fairly  add  the  great  visitations  of  cholera  in  our  own  times,  especially 
those  of  1832  and  1849;  but  they  have  not  yet  found  an  historian.  The  original  ac- 
counts of  the  Great  Plagues  mentioned  in  the  text  are  collected  into  one  view  in  Malkin's 
Historical  Parallels. 


B.C.  430.]  THE  PLAGUE  OF  ATHENS.  499 

world,  tliouffh  associated  with  tlie  name  of  the  city  where  its 
ravages  were  most  remarkable.  It  was  said  to  have  broken  out 
first  in  Ethiopia,  whence  it  descended  to  Egypt,  and  spread  to 
Libya  on  one  hand,  and  to  Asia  on  the  other.  Passing  over  to 
Europe,  it  had  been  felt  at  Eome  and  in  other  parts  of  Italy  about 
sixteen  years  before,  and  more  recently  it  had  visited  some  islands 
of  the  ^gsean.  Eeaching  Attica,  it  first  appeared,  according  to 
the  general  law  of  such  epidemics,  in  the  port  of  Pirseus.  The 
people,  collected  from  all  Attica,  crowded  together  in  their 
wretched  temporary  abodes  within  the  fortifications  of  Athens 
and  the  Long  Walls,  and  depressed  by  the  devastation  of  their 
lands,  were  in  the  fittest  state  to  receive  the  full  force  of  the 
disease.  It  was  as  sudden  as  it  was  fatal.  Attacking  first  the 
head  and  throat,  it  soon  spread  over  the  whole  system,  and  was 
generally  fatal  in  the  course  of  seven  or  nine  days.  Many  who 
recovered  from  the  first  seizure  died  from  subsequent  exhaustion, 
and  many  lost  the  use  of  their  limbs,  their  sight,  and  their 
memory.  'No  specific  was  found  for  the  complaint,  and  the  phy- 
sicians, and  others  who  had  the  rare  courage  to  visit  the  sick, 
were  among  the  surest  victims.  Quacks  and  impostors  tried  their 
nostrums  and  incantations ;  professors  of  prophecy  recited,  among 
many  others,  a  famous  oracle  which  had  declared, 

"  A  Doric  war  shall  fall, 
And  a  great  plague  withal : " 

and  while  the  superstitious  saw  in  the  infliction  the  fulfilment 
of  the  promise  of  Apollo  to  help  the  Lacedaemonians,  whether 
invoked  or  uninvoked,  vulgar  suspicion  charged  the  enemy  with 
poisoning  the  wells.  As  mental  depression  was  a  constant 
attendant  of  the  disease,  the  universal  terror  aggravated  its 
violence.  The  sick  were  soon  left  to  die  untended,  except  by  the 
few  who,  having  recovered,  were  not  liable  to  a  second  attack ; 
and  the  rites  of  burial,  so  sacred  among  the  Greeks,  were  either 
quite  neglected,  or  performed  with  indecent  confusion.  This 
selfish  disregard  of  the  sufferers  was  accompanied  by  a  selfish 
desire  to  make  the  most  of  a  span  of  life  which  any  moment 
might  cut  short,  and  the  disorder  which  prevailed  in  the  state 
made  punishment  for  the  grossest  crimes  uncertain.  The  one 
point  of  favourable  contrast  with  plague-stricken  cities  at  other 
times,  is  that  there  were  no  cruel  persecutions  directed  against 
imaginary  authors  of  the  calamity.  Commencing  in  the  spring 
of  B.C.  430,  the  pestilence  raged  till  the  close  of  the  following 
year,  and,  after  the  intermission  of  a  year  and  a  half,  it  broke  out 


500  RIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.      [Chap.  XIV. 

again  for  anotlier  year,  with  the  same  violence  as  at  first.  The 
loss  from  tlie  whole  pestilence  inflicted  a  frightful  blow  on  the 
power  of  Athens.  Three  hundred  out  of  the  1200  knights,  and 
4400  hoplites,  represent  the  deaths  among  the  better  classes, 
besides  a  vast  number  of  the  poorer  citizens.  The  epidemic  was 
almost  confined  to  Athens  and  the  more  populous  islands,  and  it 
scarcely  touched  the  more  scattered  population  of  tlie  Pelopon- 
nesus. Amidst  all  these  sufierings,  Pericles  maintained  his 
policy,  and  himself  sailed  out  with  a  fleet  of  a  hundred  ships  to 
ravage  the  Peloponnesus.  The  dispirited  Athenians  showed  no 
such  eagerness  as  in  the  former  year  to  march  out  to  battle.  But 
when  the  enemy  had  retired,  and  the  people  began  to  examine 
their  losses,  they  were  seized  with  an  uncontrollable  desire  :6)r 
peace,  and  sent  envoys  to  Lacedaemon.  The  rejection  of  their 
overtures  incensed  them  against  Pericles  more  than  ever,  but  the 
universal  outcry  failed  to  shake  his  firmness.  He  convened  an 
assembly,  and  delivered  the  last  of  those  great  speeches  which  are 
reported  by  Thucydides,  accepting  all  the  responsibility  of  his 
policy ;  pleading  his  claims  to  their  confidence  ;  urging  them  not 
to  suifer  the  resolutions  they  had  deliberately  adopted  to  become 
the  sport  of  a  sudden  calamity ;  and  encouraging  them  by  enu- 
merating all  the  advantages  they  still  possessed,  especially  in  the 
unimpaired  dominion  of  the  sea.  Victory  would  soon  make  good 
all  their  losses ;  defeat  would  deliver  them,  disgraced  and  helpless, 
to  their  bitter  enemies ;  nor,  indeed,  had  they  now  the  power 
to  recede  from  a  position  in  the  maintenance  of  which  lay  their 
safety  and  their  glory.  Though  convinced  by  his  eloquence,  and 
renewing  their  resolution  to  carry  on  the  war  with  vigour,  theii' 
irritation  vented  itself  in  the  sentence  of  tlie  dicastery,  which  con- 
demned Pericles  to  a  fine,  on  a  charge  the  exact  nature  of  which 
is  uncertain ;  but  they  soon  afterwards  re-elected  him  to  the  ofiice 
of  strategus.  He  held  this  post  about  twelve  months  longer,  till 
his  death  in  the  autumn  of  the  third  year  of  the  war  (b.c.  429). 
At  the  beginning  of  that  year  Potidsea  capitulated,  and  the  cam- 
paign of  the  summer  was  marked  by  the  great  naval  successes  of 
Phormio  in  the  Corinthian  Gulf. 

There  was  no  invasion  of  Attica  this  year,  probably  through 
fear  of  the  plague,  but  the  Peloponnesian  forces  were  led  by 
Archidamus  against  Plataja,  to  gratify  the  revenge  of  the 
Thebans,  and  to  punish  the  gallant  little  city  for  its  fidelity 
to  Athens.  The  Platseans  might  even  yet  have  escaped  their 
fate  by  renouncing  the  alliance  of  Athens,  and  consenting  to 


B.C.  427.]  FATE  OF  THE  PLATJEANS.  501 

remain  neutral;  but  tlie  Athenians  appealed  to  their  oath  of 
fidelity,  and  promised  never  to  desert  them  ;  and  the  Pla- 
taeans,  after  in  vain  recalling  to  the  memory  of  their  enemies 
the  immunities  secured  to  them  by  the  common  voice  of  Greece, 
prepared  for  an  obstinate  resistance.  The  siege  of  Platsea  forms 
one  of  the  most  interesting  episodes  of  Grecian  history.  The 
town  was  manned  by  a  garrison  of  only  400  citizens  and  eighty 
Athenians,  with  110  female  slaves  for  cooking ;  all  the  other 
inhabitants  having  been  removed  to  Athens  after  the  former 
attempt  of  the  Thebans.  Such,  however,  was  their  resolution, 
and  such  the  want  of  skill  on  the  part  of  the  besiegers,  that  this 
little  force  baffled  all  the  attacks  of  the  Peloponnesian  con- 
federates. While  the  assailants  occupied  seventy  days  and  nights 
of  uninterrupted  labour  in  heaping  up  a  mound  of  earth  and 
timber  against  the  wall,  the  defenders  heightened  the  part  threat- 
ened by  a  wooden  wall  covered  with  hides.  As  the  embank- 
ment rose,  they  broke  a  hole  through  the  city  wall  and  drew 
away  the  earth,  so  that  the  top  kept  foundering ;  and  when  the 
besiegers  stopped  the  chasm  with  masses  of  clay  bound  up  in 
reeds,  they  undermined  the  very  centre  of  the  mound.  As  a  last 
defence,  the  Platagans  built  a  second  wall,  in  the  shape  of  a 
crescent,  behind  tlie  part  of  the  wall  attacked  by  the  embank- 
ment. The  result  was,  that  the  siege  was  converted  into  a 
blockade  :  the  city  being  entirely  surrounded  with  a  double  wall 
and  ditch,  the  intermediate  space  was  occupied  by  a  garrison  of 
Peloponnesians  and  Boeotians.  The  circumvallation  was  com- 
pleted in  the  autumn  of  B.C.  429.  At  the  end  of  the  following 
year,  when  the  Platseans  began  to  suffer  the  extremities  of  famine, 
they  resolved  to  break  through  the  lines.  Half  of  them  recoiled 
at  the  last  moment  from  the  dangers  of  the  attempt,  the  other 
half  escaped  to  Athens  (b.c.  428).  The  remaining  half,  200  Pla- 
taeans  and  twenty-five  Athenians,  surrendered  at  discretion  in  the 
course  of  the  following  summer.  After  a  form  of  trial  before  a 
court  of  five  Spartans,  in  which  their  touching  appeal  to  their  past 
services  to  Greece  was  hardly  turned  aside  by  the  reply  of  the 
Theban  orators,  they  were  all  put  to  death  to  a  man  (b.c.  427).* 

This  atrocious  deed  was  not  without  a  parallel  in  the  conduct  of 
the  Athenians.  The  death  of  Pericles  had  deprived  the  city,  not 
only  of  the  leader  best  qualified  to  conduct  the  war,  but  of  the 
statesman  who  was  alone  able  to  control  the  excesses  of  opposite 

*  These  two  speeches  are  among  the  most  interesting  of  those  reported  by  Thu- 
cydides. 


502  RIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.       [Chap.  XlV. 

parties,  and  wlio  liad  gained  from  all,  except  his  bitter  personal 
foes,  the  praise  of  surpassing  wisdom  and  moderation.'^  But,  as 
Thucydides  expressly  tells  us,  "  Those  who  succeeded  after  his 
death,  heing  more  equal  one  with  another,  and  each  of  them 
desiring  pre-eminence  over  the  rest,  adopted  the  different  course 
of  courting  the  favour  of  the  people,  and  sacrificing  to  that  object 
even  important  state  interests."  His  controlling  mind  was  with- 
drawn at  the  very  time  when  mutual  exasperation  provoked  rash 
counsels.  Even  before  his  death,  in  the  second  year  of  the  war, 
the  Lacedaemonians  had  imjDorted  a  systematic  cruelty  into  their 
naval  warfare.  Unable  to  cope  with  the  Athenian  navy,  they 
fitted  out  privateers  to  prey  upon  the  mercantile  and  fishing 
vessels  that  sailed  round  their  coasts,  and  massacred  the  crews 
not  only  of  Athenian  but  of  neutral  ships.  The  Athenians  retal- 
iated by  the  murder  of  some  envoys,  whom  the  Lacedaemonians, 
in  pursuance  of  the  policy  adopted  from  the  very  beginning  of  the 
w^ar,  had  sent  to  solicit  aid  from  Persia,  and  who  were  delivered 
up  to  them  by  their  ally  the  Thracian  king.  Among  them  were 
the  Corinthian  Aristeus,  who  had  instigated  the  revolt  of  Potidsea, 
and  two  Spartan  heralds,  whose  fathers  had  gone  to  Susa  to  offer 
their  lives  in  atonement  for  the  murder  of  the  heralds  of  Darius, 
but  had  been  dismissed  unhurt  by  Xerxes.  But  the  event  that 
roused  the  bitterest  passions  of  the  Athenians  was  the  revolt  of 
one  of  the  most  important  of  their  own  allies,  Lesbos,  one  of  the 
three  large  islands  on  the  coast  of  Asia  (reduced  to  two  since  the 
revolt  and  subjugation  of  Samos),  which  alone  of  all  the  Delian 
confederates  remained  on  an  equal  footing  with  Athens. 

It  was  early  in  the  fourth  year  of  the  war  (b.c.  428)  that  the 
news  reached  Athens  that  Mytilene  had  revolted,  at  the  instiga- 
tion of  the  oligarchical  party,  drawing  after  it  the  three  towns  of 
Antissa,  Eresus,  and  Pyrrha,  whose  governments  it  absorbed  into 
its  own.  Methymna,  the  second  city  of  the  island,  and  the  jealous 
rival  of  Mytilene,  remained  faithful  to  the  Athenians.  The  revolt 
was  purely  political,  and  the  Mytilenaians  sent  a  solemn  embassy 
to  the  Peloponnesians  assembled  at  the  Olympic  festival,  propos- 
ing to  join  their  alliance,  and  begging  for  their  aid.  But  before  the 
promised  succours  could  be  sent,  the  fate  of  the  revolt  was  decided 
by  the  energy  of  the  Athenians.  Though  their  strength  had  been 
drained  by  the  plague,  and  their  accumulated  treasure  exhausted, 
they  raised  a  direct  contribution  of  two  hundred  talents  at  home, 

*  The  eulogy  of  Thucydides  (ii.  65)  is  decisive  of  the  esteem  in  which  Pericles  waa 
held  by  moderate  and  impartial  men. 


B.C.  428.]  EEVOLT  OF  MYTILENE.  508 

and  sent  ships  to  collect  money  from  the  islands ;  they  demanded 
the  personal  service  of  all  citizens,  except  the  two  highest  Solonian 
classes,  and  of  the  resident  foreigners;  and,  disregarding  the 
Peloponnesian  army,  which  had  again  invaded  Attica,  they  sent 
out  a  fleet  of  100  triremes  to  blockade  Mytilene.  After  a  long  re- 
sistance, the  spirits  of  the  Mytilenaeans  were  raised  by  the  presence 
of  a  Lacedsemonian,  Salsethus,  who  had  contrived  to  enter  the 
city,  bringing  the  news  that  a  Lacedaemonian  fleet  was  on  its  way 
to  their  relief  (b.c.  427).  But  the  time  passed  on  without  the 
appearance  of  the  promised  succours ;  the  provisions  were  ex- 
hausted; and  Salsethus  resolved  to  try  one  united  sally.  But 
no  sooner  had  he  put  arms  into  the  hands  of  all  the  people,  than 
the  democratic  party  refused  to  act  under  the  former  leaders, 
who  were  obliged  to  capitulate,  as  the  only  means  of  preventing 
an  unconditional  surrender.  Baches,  the  Athenian  general,  agreed 
to  refer  the  fate  of  the  rebels  to  the  Athenian  people,  before  whom 
Mytilenaean  envoys  were  to  plead  their  cause;  and  he  sent  to 
Athens  a  thousand  of  the  chief  citizens  as  prisoners,  together  with 
Salaethus.  The  debate  which  ensued  at  Athens  forms  one  of  the 
most  memorable  episodes  of  the  war.  Cleon  now  appears  for  the 
first  time,  as  the  representative  of  those  demagogues  for  whom 
the  removal  of  Bericles  had  made  way. 

The  reader  of  Thucydides  cannot  fail  to  be  struck  with  the 
great  void  among  the  party  leaders  of  the  higher  class  from  the 
death  of  Bericles  to  the  rise  of  Alcibiades.  Almost  the  only  names 
of  any  eminence  in  the  ecclesia,  besides  the  demagogues,  are  those 
of  Nicias  and  Demosthenes.  The  latter,  who  does  not  appear 
prominently  till  b.c.  426,  was  little  more  than  the  honest  straight- 
forward soldier.  The  former  had  already  been  associated  in  com- 
mand with  Bericles ;  and  his  wealth,  birth,  and  character  must 
have  secured  him  considerable  respect.  But  his  quiet  and  irre- 
solute disposition  by  no  means  fitted  him  to  seize  the  reins  as 
they  fell  from  the  hand  of  Bericles.  It  is  not  till  after  the  rise 
of  Cleon  that  we  find  him  impelled  by  his  sense  of  patriotism  and 
by  the  claims  of  his  party,  to  wage  an  unequal  contest  with  the 
demagogue ;  *  and  his  political  ascendancy  only  dates  from  Cleon's 
death  in  b.c.  422. 

Free  as  the  arena  of  the  government  had  been  to  all  the  citizens 
since  the  reforms  of  Bericles  and  Ephialtes,  the  great  leaders  had 
till  now  been,  for  the  most  part,  men  of  the  old  families.     It  is 

*  The  orator  who  opposes  Cleon  in  the  affair  of  the  Mytilenaeans,  is  not  Nicias,  but 
Diodotus,  a  politician  otherwise  unkno^-n. 


504  EIVALKY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.     [Chap.  XIV 

but  slowly  that  tlio  power  passes  out  of  the  hands  of  that  class  in 
a  free  state ;  and  their  influence  was  upheld  at  Athens  by  their 
social  and  political  associations.  No  such  help, — but  the  jealous 
opposition  of  a  body  anxious  to  preserve  by  their  union  privileges 
no  longer  allowed  to  them  by  the  law, — met  the  men  of  the  people 
who,  enriched  by  the  growth  of  commerce,  or  possessed  of  power 
of  speech  and  of  the  assurance  needed  to  face  the  ecclesia  and  the 
dicasteries,  aspired  to  a  leading  part  in  politics.  "  A  person  of 
such  low  or  middling  station  obtained  no  favourable  presumptions 
or  indulgence  on  the  part  of  the  public  to  meet  him  half-way, 
nor  had  he  established  connections  to  encourage  first  successes,  or 
help  him  out  of  early  scrapes.  He  found  others  already  in  pos- 
session of  ascendancy,  and  well  disposed  to  keep  down  new  com- 
petitors ;  so  that  he  had  to  win  his  own  way  unaided,  from  the 
first  step  to  the  last,  by  qualities  personal  to  himself;  by  assiduity 
of  attendance — by  acquaintance  with  business — by  powers  of  strik- 
ing speech — and  withal  by  unflinching  audacity,  indispensable  to 
enable  him  to  bear  up  against  that  opposition  and  enmity  w^hich 
he  would  incur  from  the  high-born  politicians  and  organized  party 
clubs,  as  soon  as  he  appeared  to  be  rising  up  into  ascendancy."  * 
Such  men  were  Eucrates,  the  rope-seller;  Lysicles,  the  sheep- 
seller;  Hyperbolus,  the  lamp-maker;  and,  above  all,  Cleon,  the 
leather-seller. 

The  character  of  this  remarkable  man  is  delineated  ])y  Thucy- 
dides  in  a  few  of  his  masterly  touches,  and  roughly  dra-svn  by 
Aristophanes  with  the  broadest  strokes  of  caricature.  The  great 
comedian  began  his  public  career  in  this  very  year,  e.g.  427,  with 
a  play  called  "  The  Banqueters,"  which  is  now  lost.  His  second 
comedy,  "  The  Babylonians,"  which  is  also  lost  (e.g.  426),  first 
opened  the  attack  on  Cleon,  which  was  followed  up  two  years 
afterwards  in  his  celebrated  "  Knights  "  (e.g.  424).  This  play  fur- 
nishes a  leading  type  of  the  spirit  of  the  Old  Attic  Comedy,  as  per- 
fected by  its  greatest  master.  Demos  (the  people),  an  old  man 
who  has  reached  his  dotage,  without  being  the  less  cunning  and 
suspicious,  irascible  and  tyrannical,  has  fallen  into  the  hands  of  his 
steward,  Cleon,  a  leather-seller,  smelling  of  the  tan-yard,  brawling 
and  bullying,  cozening  and  fawning,  pilfering  and  lying,  bringing 
accusations  against  his  fellow  servants,  and  withdrawing  them 
for  bribes.  The  old  man's  faithful  servants,  Nicias  and  Demos- 
thenes, set  up  a  rival  to  Cleon  in  the  person  of  a  sausage-seller, 
who  surpasses  him  in  all  his  foul  arts,  cheating  w^ays,  and  over- 

*  Grote,  History  of  Greece,  vol.  vi.,  pp.  330-1. 


B.C.  427.]  ARISTOPHANES.  50t 

bearing  tyranny,  till  lie  has  entirely  supplanted  Cleon.  He  then 
throws  off  his  assumed  character ;  appears  as  the  model  of  old 
aristocratic  virtue ;  restores  Demos  to  youth  by  the  magic  virtue 
of  a  cauldron  like  Medea's,  and  exhibits  him  in  all  the  freshness 
of  the  age  of  Marathon. 

The  exact  influence  of  Aristophanes  on  the  mind  of  his  age,  and 
his  value  to  us  as  an  authority,  are  often  misunderstood  through 
forgetfulness  of  the  essential  spirit  of  caricature.  Once  let  it  be 
exactly  truthful,  moderate,  sober,  cautious,  and  it  ceases  to  be 
caricature  at  all.  Truthful,  indeed,  it  must  be,  in  one  sense,  if  it 
be  not  dishonest  and  contemptible ;  if  its  object  be  simply  to 
amuse,  the  pleasure  must  not  be  purchased  by  falsehood;  if 
serious,  it  is  still  more  bound  to  refrain  from  any  positive  decep- 
tion. The  comic  masks  of  the  Attic  stage,  like  the  pictures  of  our 
great  modern  caricaturists,  would  lose  all  merit  unless  they  pre- 
served the  likeness  of  their  originals,  however  laughably  distorted 
or  exaggerated  in  the  several  features ;  and  their  "  counterfeit 
presentment "  of  character  was  governed  by  the  same  laws.  But, 
as  we  should  scarcely  place  pictures  of  the  former  class  in  a  por- 
trait gallery,  so  we  should  beware  of  following  the  latter  deline- 
ations of  character  too  literally.  Still  more  mistaken,  however, 
is  the  view  which  sets  them  aside  as  mere  buffoonery.  The  prev- 
alence of  that  element  on  the  comic  stage  of  Athens — an 
element  which  he  himself  claims  to  have  reduced  within  a  far 
more  moderate  compass  than  before — does  not  make  Aristophanes 
a  mere  buffoon.  A  serious  purpose  is  manifested  throughout  his 
works.  He  is  -the  strenuous  advocate  of  the  old  views  in  politics 
and  social  life,  in  poetical  criticism,  in  philosophy  and  religion,  if 
indeed  we  ought  not  rather  to  say  that  he  condemned  all  the  philos- 
ophy of  his  age  as  irreligious  and  demoralizing.  The  vividness 
of  his  fancy,  the  exquisite  beauty  of  his  more  poetical  passages, 
and  the  purity  of  his  language,  even  in  his  scenes  of  broadest 
humour,  have  won  the  admiration  of  every  age,  whose  universal 
verdict  has  re-echoed  the  praise  of  Plato : — 

"  The  Muses  seeking  for  a  shrine 
Whose  glories  ne'er  should  cease, 
Found,  as  they  stray'd,  the  soul  divine 
Of  Aristophanes.* 

In  politics,  the  poet  came  forward  to  resist  the  demagogues  at  a 
time  when  they  scarcely  had  any  effective  opposition  in  the  ecclesia. 
The  seriousness  of  his  pm-pose,  in  this  field  at  all  events,  was 

*  Epigram  in  the  Greek  Anthology,  translated  by  Merivale. 


506  RIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.     [Chap.  XIV. 

proved  by  the  courage  with  which  he  attacked  Cleon  in  tlie  year 
after  his  popularity  had  reached  its  height  by  the  capture  of  the 
Spartans  in  Sphacteria  (b.c.  424).  Of  this  the  play  of  "  The 
Knights  "  is  itself  a  sufiicient  proof,  even  if  tliere  be  no  sufficient 
foundation  for  the  story  that,  when  no  artist  had  the  courage  to  make 
the  mask  of  Cleon,  Aristophanes  acted  the  part  himself,  with  his  face 
daubed  with  lees  of  wine,  after  the  fashion  of  the  early  comedians. 
Whatever  there  may  have  been  exaggerated  in  the  character  thus 
pourtraycd,  and  whether  or  no  the  personal  turpitude  of  Cleon  was 
as  deep  as  Aristophanes  depicts  it,  we  have  the  testimony  of 
Thucydides  to  his  political  profligacy,  his  dishonest  calumnies,  and 
his  reckless  invectives.  lie  first  appears  as  an  instigator  of  the 
popular  discontent  against  Pericles  during  the  invasion  of  Attica 
in  the  first  year  of  the  war ;  and  now  again  as  the  vehement  advo- 
cate of  a  most  cruel  act  of  popular  vengeance,  which  has  brought 
indelible  disgrace  on  the  Athenian  democracy,  though  its  consum- 
mation was  hindered  by  their  repentance. 

The  revolt  of  Lesbos  had  startled  the  Athenians  by  its  discov- 
ery of  the  insecurity  of  their  maritime  empire.  They  had  seen  a 
Lacedaemonian  fleet  invited  into  the  Asiatic  waters  by  their  faith- 
less ally,  at  the  moment  when  they  were  weakened  by  the  plague 
at  home.  The  very  defence  of  the  Mytilensean  advocates  was 
calculated  to  increase  their  indignation ;  for  they  alleged  no  injury 
done  to  them  by  Athens,  and  the  only  plea  they  urged  was  most 
offensive  by  its  distrust,  and  by  its  implied  censure  on  the  whole 
course  of  the  Athenian  empire, — the  fear  that  she  might  oppress 
and  subdue  them  hereafter,  as  had  been  the  fate  of  the  other  allies. 
To  an  assembly  thus  excited,  Cleon  suddenly  proposed  that  all  the 
male  population  of  military  age  should  be  put  to  death,  and  the 
women  and  children  sold  for  slaves ;  and  the  decree  was  passed 
after  a  vehement  opposition.  But  the  assembly  liad  no  sooner 
broken  up  than  a  revulsion  of  feeling  followed,  the  more  readily, 
as  Mr.  Grote  has  suggested,  from  a  well-known  law  of  human 
nature,  "  that  the  sentiment  of  wrath  against  the  Mytilenaeans 
had  been  really  in  part  discharged  by  the  mere  passing  of  the 
sentence,  quite  apart  from  its  execution."  The  Mytilensean  envoys 
induced  the  strategi  to  call  another  assembly  for  the  next  day,  in 
wliich  the  decree  was  reversed,  in  spite  of  the  furious  opposition  of 
Cleon,  but  only  by  a  small  majority.*  A  swift  trireme  was  de- 
spatched to  overtake  the  ship  which  had  been  sent  off  innnediately 

*  Thucydides,  who  only  mentions  the  first  assembly  very  briefly,  gives  a  full  report 
of  the  speech  of  Cleon  and  the  reply  of  Diodotus,  iii.  37 — 48. 


B.C.  427.]  MASSACEES  OF  COKOYEA.  507 

after  the  first  decision ;  and  such  was  the  zeal  of  the  crew,  that 
they  reached  Mytilene  just  as  Paches  had  read  the  former  mandate, 
and  was  preparing  to  put  it  into  execution.  Thus  the  Mytile- 
nseans  were  saved  from  extermination ;  but  their  lands  became 
the  property  of  Athenian  cleruchi,  and  the  rage  of  Cleon  was 
partly  gratified  by  the  execution  of  the  thousand  prisonei's  who 
had  been  sent  to  Athens.  This  wliole  transaction,  like  the  mas- 
sacre of  the  Plataeans,  displays  in  a  strong  light  the  inhumanity 
of  the  Greeks  to  their  political  enemies;  but  the  Athenians, 
besides  having  wi'ongs  to  avenge,  which  the  Spartans  could  not 
plead,  deserve  some  credit  for  their  efiectual  repentance.  They 
soon  after  proved  their  sense  of  justice  by  the  arraignment  of 
Paches,  for  crimes  committed  in  the  course  of  his  command,  only 
paralleled  by  the  deeds  of  men  like  Carrier  in  the  French  Reign  of 
Terror.  lie  anticipated  his  sentence  by  falling  on  his  sword  in 
open  com't.  Before  this  year  closed,  a  still  more  terrible  example 
of  the  internecine  hostility  of  the  two  great  parties  was  afforded  by 
the  seven  days'  massacre  of  the  aristocratic  party  in  Corcyra,  in 
revenge  for  the  murder  of  a  popular  leader,  and  amidst  the  fear  of 
an  attack  from  the  Peloponnesian  fleet,  just  as  the  September 
massacres  were  pei"petrated  amidst  the  ten'or  caused  at  Paris  by 
the  advance  of  the  duke  of  Brunswick.  Thucydides  dwells  upon 
these  atrocities  as  showing  how  completely  all  the  bonds  of  relig- 
ion, morality,  and  common  humanity  had  been  overthrown  in  a 
few  years  by  a  civil  war  waged  for  an  idea. 

We  have  dwelt  the  more  fully  on  the  early  years  of  the  war,  on 
account  of  their  political  and  social  importance ;  the  more  stirring 
military  incidents  of  the  next  few  years  can  only  be  glanced  at. 
The  offensive  operations  of  the  Athenians  took  a  wider  range ;  and. 
their  confidence  was  strengthened  by  the  successful  campaigns  of 
Demosthenes  in  Acamania  and  its  vicinity  (b.c.  426).  The 
seventh  was  a  memorable  year  in  the  history  of  the  war.  Demos- 
thenes conceived  the  plan  of  fortifying  a  permanent  station  on  the 
coast  of  Peloponnesus.  For  this  purpose  he  chose  the  headland  of 
Pylos  {Old  Ifavarino),  on  the  north  side  of  the  bay  which  has 
again  become  memorable  in  our  time  for  the  battle  of  ISTavarino. 
This  bay  Jies  on  the  western  shore  of  Messenia,  about  forty-five 
miles  from  Sparta.  Across  its  mouth  the  long,  wooded  island  of 
Sphacteria  {Sphagia)  stretches  like  a  breakwater,  leaving  two  nari'ow 
passages  on  the  north  and  south,  of  which  the  former  was  com- 
manded by  the  fort  built  by  Demosthenes.  The  news  of  this  bold 
step  recalled  the  Spartan  king,  Agis,  from  the  invasion  of  Attica 


508  RIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.      [Chap.  XIV. 

(tlie  liftli  (luring  the  war) ;  tlie  Peloponnesian  fleet  -was  transferred 
from  Corcyra  to  Pylos ;  and  its  commander,  Thrasymelidas,  at 
once  occupied  the  island  of  Sphacteria.  An  attack  of  the  Lacedae- 
monians on  the  little  garrison  was  repulsed  by  Demosthenes ;  and 
the  Athenian  fleet,  whicli  had  been  sent  to  his  relief,  entered  the 
bay  without  opposition,  and  gained  a  great  naval  victory  over  the 
Peloponnesians.  The  detached  force  in  the  island  of  Sphacteria 
was  thus  entirely  cut  off'  from  relief;  and,  as  it  included  many 
members  of  the  first  Spartan  families,  their  lives  were  considered 
worth  redeeming  by  a  general  peace.  Envoys  were  sent  to  Athens, 
and  the  Lacedaemonian  fleet  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  the 
Athenian  admiral,  Eurymedon,  as  a  security  for  the  armistice. 
The  elated  Athenians  were  persuaded  by  Cleon  to  accept  of  no- 
terms  short  of  the  restoration  of  all  the  places  on  the  continent 
which  had  been  ceded  by  the  Thirty  Years'  Truce.  The  negotia- 
tions were  broken  off";  Eurymedon  found  a  pretext  for  keeping 
the  Peloponnesian  fleet ;  and  the  blockade  of  Sphacteria  was  con- 
tinued. Means  were,  however,  found  of  conveying  provisions  to 
the  island.  Demosthenes  resolved  to  carry  it  by  force  before  the 
winter  storms  broke  up  the  blockade.  With  this  view,  he  sent  to 
Athens  for  reinforcements. 

The  impatience  of  the  Athenians  at  this  delay  vented  itself  upon 
Cleon,  who  had  persuaded  them  to  reject  an  advantageous  peace. 
With  his  ready  effrontery,  he  turned  the  attack  upon  the  leading 
statesmen.  Pointing  to  Nicias,  he  exclaimed,  "  If  our  generals 
were  men,  it  would  be  easy  with  a  proper  force  to  sail  and  take  the 
soldiers  in  the  island.  That  is  what  /  at  least  would  do,  if  /were 
general."  Amidst  the  burst  of  merriment  which  followed  this 
sally,  a  voice  was  heard,  which  challenged  him  to  make  good  his 
boast.  Nicias  caught  at  the  suggestion,  as  a  means  of  Cleon's 
certain  ruin,  and  offered  to  resign  to  him  his  right  to  command 
the  expedition,  as  chief  strategus  for  the  year.  In  vain  did  Cleon 
attempt  to  draw  back,  exclaiming,  "  It  is  your  place  to  sail :  you 
are  general,  not  I."  His  enemies  were  ready  to  risk  the  arma- 
ment, so  that  Cleon  should  risk  his  life  and  reputation  ;  and  they 
gladly  embraced  the  alternative  either  of  getting  rid  of  him  or 
reaping  the  fruit  of  his  daring ;  and  it  is  not  improbable  that  a 
large  party  in  the  ecclesia  felt  that  confidence  in  his  success  which 
the  event  justified.  Finding  evasion  useless,  he  not  only  resumed 
his  assurance,  declining  the  aid  of  the  regular  troops,  and  only 
requiring  some  Lemnian  and  Imbrian  infantry,  with  a  body  of 
light-armed  Thracians,  and  400  archers ;  but  he  had  the  prudence 


B.C.  425.]  CLEON'S  SUCCESS  AT  ■SPHACTERIA.  509 

to  require  that  Demosthenes  should  be  named  as  his  second  in 
command.  So  he  engaged,  within  twenty  days,  either  to  bring 
the  Lacedaemonians  as  prisoners  to  Athens,  or  to  kill  them  in  the 
island.  That  fortune,  which  favours  the  bold,  enabled  him  to 
make  good  his  boast.  On  reaching  Pylos,  he  found  that  Demos- 
thenes had  completed  his  preparations.  The  Athenian  forces  were 
landed  in  the  island,  and,  after  a  long  and  obstinate  struggle,  in 
which  many  of  the  Lacedaemonians  fell,  the  survivors  were  sur- 
rounded and  forced  to  capitulate.  They  numbered  292,  out  of  an 
original  force  of  420  ;  and  120  were  native  Spartans,  belonging  for 
the  most  part  to  the  first  families  in  the  city.  Such  prisoners 
were  invaluable  as  hostages ;  and  while  they  were  in  the  hands  of 
the  Athenians,  the  enemy  were  no  longer  at  liberty  to  conduct  the 
war  as  they  pleased.  More  than  this,  the  prestige  of  the  invincible 
Spartan  hoplites  was  broken  through,  and  her  force  seriously 
weakened  by  the  loss  of  so  many  citizens.  Cleon's  share  in  the 
achievement  was  represented  by  his  enemies  as  a  mere  "  filching 
from  Demosthenes  a  cake  already  baked ; "  *  but,  besides  the  credit 
due  to  success,  he  had  the  merit  of  urging  prompt  action,  when 
Nicias  and  his  party  only  proposed  to  temporize.  One  sequel  of 
the  aifair  of  Pylos  is  too  tembly  characteristic  of  the  spirit  engen- 
dered by  the  war  to  be  passed  over.  Alarmed  at  tlie  importance 
which  the  Helots  had  acquired  by  their  services,  especially  in 
conveying  supplies  to  Sphacteria,  the  Spartans  planned  their 
massacre.  Those  who  had  distinguished  themselves  were  invited 
to  come  forward  and  receive  emancipation.  Two  thousand  of 
them  were  crowned  with  garlands,  amidst  the  public  ceremonies 
of  liberation ;  and  they  all  soon  afterwards  disappeared  by  methods 
known  to  the  Ephors.  As  if  to  match  these  horrors  on  the  other 
side,  the  massacres  at  Corcyra  were  renewed  under  the  direct 
sanction  of  the  Athenian  fleet,  which  had  returned  to  the  island 
after  the  reduction  of  Sphacteria.  The  fortified  position  of  Pylos 
was  held  by  the  Athenians  almost  to  the  end  of  the  war. 

In  the  eighth  year  of  the  war  (b.c.  424),  the  Athenians  followed 
up  their  recent  success,  rejecting  fresh  overtures  for  peace.  They 
captured  the  island  of  Cythera,  which  lies  off"  the  southern  pro- 
montory of  Laconia,  as  well  as  Nissea,  the  port  of  Megara.  But 
the  same  year  was  marked  by  terrible  reverses.  An  expedition 
into  Boeotia  was  utterly  defeated  in  the  disastrous  battle  of  Delium, 
in  which  both  Socrates  and  Alcibiades  fought  with  distinction, 

*  Aristoph.  EquU.  54.     See  Mr.  Grote's   most  ingenious  discussion   of  the  whole 
question ;  History  of  Greece^  vol.  vi.,  p.  458. 


510  RIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.     [Chap.  XIV. 

On  this  occasion  we  first  hear  of  the  heavy  Boeotian  phalanx  of 
twenty-five  deep,  and  of  the  Theban  Band  of  Three  Hundred  cliosen 
warriors,  afterwards  known  as  the  Sacred  Band.  A  worse  disaster 
soon  after  befell  the  Athenians  in  Thrace.  A  Lacedremonian  army 
was  sent  into  that  quarter  at  the  joint  request  of  Perdiccas,  king 
of  Macedonia,  and  the  Chalcidian  towns.  Its  commander  was 
Brasidas,  the  man  most  distinguished  for  personal  gallantry  in  the 
whole  annals  of  the  war.  In  its  first  year  he  had  saved  Methone 
from  surrendering  to  the  Athenian  fleet,  and  had  been  elected 
Ephor  (b.c.  431).  In  the  attack  on  Pylos  he  was  wounded  while 
leading  the  way  in  his  galley  (b.c.  425).  AVhile  engaged  in  col- 
lecting forces  for  his  Thracian  expedition,  he  had  saved  Megara 
from  the  Athenians  (b.c.  424).  Now  again,  by  operations  of  sur- 
passing skill,  he  took  from  the  Athenians  their  recently  founded 
colony  of  Amphipolis  on  the  Strymon,  the  key  to  their  empire  in 
Thrace  and  to  the  secure  possession  of  their  valuable  gold-mines. 
Just  after  the  city  had  surrendered,  an  Athenian  squadron  arrived 
at  Eion,  and  preserved  that  town,  though  too  late  to  save  Amphi- 
polis. The  loss,  which  was  most  keenly  felt  at  Athens,  was 
ascribed,  it  would  seem  not  unjustly,  to  the  culpable  delay  of  the 
commanders,  one  of  whom  w^as  the  historian  Thucydides.  On  the 
motion  of  Cleon,  Thucydides  was  condemned  to  banishment,  and 
remained  in  exile  for  twenty  years  (b.c.  423).'^ 

Wliile  Brasidas  made  his  conquest  of  Amphipolis  the  starting- 
point  for  an  attack  upon  the  Athenian  possessions  in  the  Chalci- 
dian peninsula,  the  Lacedaemonians  at  home  were  eager  for  peace 
for  the  sake  of  the  citizens  captured  at  Sphacteria.  I^egotiations 
were  carried  on  during  the  winter,  and  a  truce  for  one  year,  with  a 
view  to  a  peace,  was  concluded  in  March,  b.c.  423.  The  truce 
was  virtually  inoperative  in  Thrace,  wdiere  Brasidas  continued  to 
exhibit  his  skill  and  vigour  in  campaigns  which  we  cannot  stay  to 
follow.  The  end  of  the  year  found  the  negotiations  little  advanced, 
and  Athens  divided  into  a  peace  and  war  party,  headed  by  Nicias 
and  Cleon.  The  policy  of  the  latter  prevailed,  and  he  himself  led 
an  expedition  for  the  recovery  of  Amphipolis  (b.c  422).  After 
retaking  Torone,  on  the  Sithonian  peninsula,  he  sailed  to  Eion, 
and  there  waited  for  reinforcements  from  the  Macedonians  and 
Thracians,  while  Brasidas  remained  quiet  in  Amphipolis.     The 

*  The  whole  question  of  the  reasons  of  the  failure  of  Thucydides  before  Amphi- 
polis, and  the  justice  or  injustice  of  his  sentence,  is  fully  discussed  by  Bp.  Thirlwall 
{History  of  Greece,  vol.  iii.,  p.  268)  and  Mr.  Grote  {History  of  Greece,  voL  tI., 
p.  565). 


B.C.  421.]  THE  FIFTY  YEARS'  TRUCE.  511 

discontent  of  the  Athenian  citizens  in  Cleon's  army,  and  their  un- 
disguised contempt  for  his  military  qualities,  goaded  him  into  a 
movement  up  the  Strymon,  to  reconnoitre  Amphipolis  from  an 
eminence  outside  its  wall.  All  seemed  quiet  within  the  city,  and 
no  defenders  appeared  upon  the  battlements ;  hut  Brasidas  was 
preparing  for  a  sally  upon  the  enemy,  thus  lulled  into  a  false 
security.  Indications  of  his  movements  reached  Cleon,  who  began 
a  disorderly  retreat.  Brasidas  looked  over  the  city-wall  upon  the 
retiring  masses,  and,  exclaiming  that  men  who  carried  their  spears 
and  heads  with  that  wavering  gait  would  never  stand  the  shock  of 
steady  troops,  he  gave  orders  for  the  attack.  The  Athenians  were 
completely  surprised ;  Cleon  lost  all  presence  of  mind  and  was 
among  the  first  to  fly,  but  he  was  overtaken  and  slain  by  a  Thra- 
cian  peltast.  Brasidas  was  mortally  wounded  while  pressing  on 
the  attack  ;  but  his  victory  was  complete,  and  not  more  than  half 
the  Athenian  force  returned  to  Eion. 

It  has  been  doubted  which  was  the  greater  gain  to  Athens,  the 
loss  of  her  enemy's  general,  or  of  her  own  leader.  Be  the  sarcasm 
upon  Cleon  just  or  unjust,  it  is  certain  that  he  and  Brasidas  were 
equally  opposed  to  peace,  and  their  removal  was  a  double  step 
towards  its  conclusion.  Negotiations,  re-opened  during  the  winter 
under  the  auspices  of  Nicias  and  of  the  Spartan  king  Pleistoanax, 
led  to  the  conclusion  of  a  Fifty  Years'  Truce,  on  the  basis  of  a 
mutual  restitution  of  prisoners  and  places  captured  during  the 
war.  Thus  ended  all  the  high  pretensions  of  Sparta  to  redress  the 
wrongs  of  her  allies  and  to  free  Greece  from  the  empire  of  Athens  ; 
while  the  Athenian  statesmen,  in  their  eagerness  for  peace,  sacri- 
ficed the  most  faithful  of  her  allies,  permitting  the  Thebans  to 
retain  Platsea,  on  the  ground  that  it  had  been  surrendered  volun- 
tarily. Athens  kept  Xissea,  the  port  of  Megara,  and  Anactorium, 
on  the  same  ground  (b.c.  421). 

Lots  were  drawn  to  decide  the  order  in  which  the  restitutions 
should  be  made,  and  Athens  drew  the  favourable  lot.  But  when 
the  Spartans  began  to  perforai  the  terms,  their  envoy  to  Thrace 
met  with  such  opposition  from  the  Chalcidians  as  rendered  the 
restitution  of  Amphipolis  impracticable ;  and  the  Athenians,  on 
their  part,  retained  the  post  of  Pylos. 

The  treaty  was  meanwhile  deprived  of  the  character  of  a  general 
peace,  by  the  discontent  of  the  most  powerful  allies  of  Sparta.  The 
Corinthians,  Eleans,  Megarians,  and  Boeotians  refused  to  ratify 
the  truce.  Upon  this,  the  Athenian  envoys,  who  were  still  at 
Sparta,  formed  a  new  treaty  of  defensive  alliance  with  the  Lace- 


512  RIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.      [Chap.  XIV 

daemonians  ;  but  this  Lasty  measure  of  the  peace  party  failed  to 
remove  the  dissatisfaction  of  tlieir  countrymen  at  the  non-fulfil- 
ment of  the  treaty  by  the  allies  of  Sparta.  The  Corinthians,  dis- 
appointed of  those  maritime  objects  which  had  made  them  so  eager 
for  the  war,  formed  the  scheme  of  a  new  Peloponnesian  confederacy, 
headed,  as  in  ancient  times,  by  Ai'gos,  to  counterbalance  the 
influence  alike  of  Athens  and  of  Sparta.  A  congress  was  held  at 
Corinth  ;  and  the  Eleans,  the  Arcadians  of  Mantinea,  and  the 
Chalcidians  of  Thrace,  at  once  joined  the  new  league ;  but  the 
Megarians  and  Boeotians  kept  aloof,  and  Tegea,  the  rival  of  Man- 
tinea,  declared  its  determination  to  stand  by  Sparta.  We  have 
not  space  to  follow  all  the  complicated  intrigues  that  ensued 
between  the  leading  states,  and  which  ended  in  the  Athenians 
being  drawn  into  the  Argive  alliance  by  the  cunning  policy  of 
Alcibiades  (b.c.  420). 

This  man,  whose  extraordinary  combination  of  brilliant  qualities 
with  reckless  profligacy  has  made  him  one  of  the  most  prominent 
characters  in  history,  now  makes  his  appearance  for  the  first  time 
in  political  life,  having  already  astonished  and  fascinated  his  fel- 
low-citizens. He  was  about  thirty  years  of  age,  having  been  bom 
about  B.C.  450.  His  father,  Clinias,  claimed  descent  from  the 
race  of  the  hero  ^acus,  and  on  his  mother's  side  he  was  con- 
nected with  the  AlcmaBonidse,  and  so  with  Pericles,  who  was  his 
guardian.  Xenophon  records  an  amusing  instance  of  his  delight 
in  sophistical  arguments  with  the  great  statesman  ;  and  this  intel- 
lectual wilfulness  was  united  with  ungovernable  petulance  and 
passion.  From  his  boyhood  he  took  pleasure  in  surprising  the 
citizens  of  Athens  by  his  capricious  freaks ;  while  his  extreme 
beauty  exposec^  him  to  solicitations  of  the  kind  at  which  we  have 
previously  felt  compelled  to  allude  as  characteristic  of  the  age. 
His  natural  powers  of  mind,  and  his  skill  in  all  manly  exercises, 
encouraged  him  to  assert  a  superiority  over  his  comrades,  which  he 
abused  by  outrageous  exhibitions  of  vanity  and  insolence,  so  that 
his  enemies  were  as  numerous  as  his  admirers,  and  many  scarcely 
knew  themselves  to  which  class  they  belonged.  His  great  wealth 
enabled  him  to  dazzle  the  people  by  a  splendid  extravagance  ;  and 
there  was  a  fascination  about  his  whole  character,  which  shielded 
him  from  punishment ;  for  it  is  remarkable  that  he  was  never  pros- 
ecuted by  any  of  the  numerous  persons  he  had  injured.  In  per- 
forming the  military  service  of  an  Athenian  citizen,  he  gained  the 
highest  reputation  for  courage.  "When  only  twenty  years  of  age, 
he  distinguished  himself  at  the  siege  of  Potidaea  (b.c.  432),  where 


B.C.  420.]  CHARACTER  OF  ALCIBIADES.  51S 

he  was  severely  wounded,  while  fighting  in  the  front  of  the  battle, 
and  his  life  was  saved  by  Socrates,  to  whom  he  repaid  the  service  at 
the  battle  of  Delimn  (e.g.  424).  The  warm  attachment  of  the 
wayward  youth  to  the  great  philosopher  is  a  redeeming  feature 
in  the  character  of  Alcibiades;  but  the  sentiment  was  neither 
strong  nor  lasting  enough  to  have  a  permanent  influence  on  his 
conduct.  We  have  already  given  some  account  of  the  motives 
with  which  the  young  men  of  Athens  attended  the  lessons  of  the 
sophists.  Among  them,  Alcibiades  heard  Protagoras,  Prodicus, 
and  the  rest ;  but  he  had  the  quickness  to  recognise  the  dialectic 
method  of  Socrates  as  the  most  powerful  instrmnent  of  successful 
speaking  in  the  ecclesia  and  the  courts.  The  acute  philosophical 
discussions  and  the  still  nobler  moral  teaching;  of  the  master  can- 
not  but  have  exerted  a  good  effect  on  his  disciples,  creating  in  them 
some  taste  for  intellectual  pleasure,  and  setting  vividly  before  them 
the  claims  of  duty ;  and  Xenophon  assures  us  that  Alcibiades  was 
thus  the  better  for  his  intercourse  with  Socrates.  But  the  partial 
effort  of  self-restraint  soon  disgusted  a  temper  that  had  never 
known  control ;  and  Alcibiades  became  a  less  frequent  companion 
of  Socrates,  as  soon  as  he  had  acquired  the  needful  skill  in  dialec- 
tics. There  were  not  wanting  those  who  thought  they  could  trace 
in  the  wanton  eccentricities  and  splendid  profusion  of  Alcibiades  a 
subtle  scheme  for  raising  himself  to  the  illegal  power  which  his 
pride  might  prompt  him  to  seize ;  and  thus  he  appeared  in  public 
life  already  a  mark  for  political  suspicion  as  well  as  private  hatred. 
But  the  predominant  feeling  towards  him  seems  to  have  been  that 
vague  admiration,  which  made  him  a  popular  favourite  without 
securing  him  esteem  and  confidence.  The  higher  classes,  who 
petted  him  as  a  youth,  and  the  people,  who  applauded  him  in  the 
ecclesia,  shared  with  him  the  responsibility  of  his  crimes  and 
follies ;  and  from  the  very  first,  his  position  justified  the  opinion 
expressed  near  the  close  of  his  career  by  Aristophanes : — "  It  is 
better  not  to  rear  a  lion  in  the  city ;  but  if  you  rear  him,  you  must 
submit  to  his  behaviour."  * 

Entering  upon  public  life  at  about  the  age  of  thirty,  he  soon 
proved  that  he  added  to  his  other  qualities  the  unprincipled 
astuteness  of  Themistocles.  His  grandfather,  who  bore  the  same 
name,  had  been  a  warm  opponent  of  the  Pisistratids,  and  had 
renounced  an  old  tie  of  hospitality  with  Sparta,  as  the  pledge  of 
his  devotion  to  the  democracy.  With  that  party  the  young  Alci- 
biades was  also  naturally  connected  by  his  relationship  to  Pericles. 

*  Aristophanes,  Frogs,  vv.  1432-3.     This  play  was  exhibited  in  b.c.  405. 
VOL.  I. — 33 


514  RIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.      [Chap.  XIV. 

Choosing  his  own  course,  however,  he  came  forward  as  a  supporter 
of  tlie  policy  of  Nicias,  and  a  zealous  philo-Laconian.  By  the 
kindnesses  he  showed  to  the  Spartan  prisoners  from  Sphacteria,  he 
tried  to  establish  a  claim  for  the  renewal  of  the  ancient  relations 
of  his  family  with  Lacedajmon.  But  it  was  too  much  for  the 
temper  and  policy  of  the  Spartans  to  trust  their  interests  to 
a  dissolute  youth ;  and  the  prisoners,  on  returning  home,  were 
unable  or  unwilling  to  fulfil  the  hopes  of  Alcibiades,  who  became 
forthwith  an  ardent  supporter  of  the  Argive  alliance.  A  joint 
embassy  from  Argos,  El  is,  and  Mantinea  appeared  at  Athens,  at 
his  suggestion  ;  while  the  Spartans,  in  alarm,  hastened  to  send 
envoys  to  explain  their  alleged  breaches  of  the  truce,  and  to 
demand  the  restoration  of  Pylos.  The  Spartan  envoys  had  already 
been  introduced  by  Nicias  to  the  Senate,  and  had  made  a  favour- 
able impression  by  declaring  that  they  came  with  full  powers, 
when  Alcibiades  obtained  a  private  interview  with  them,  and  per- 
suaded them  that  their  only  hope  of  meeting  the  hostile  temper 
of  the  ecclesia,  and  avoiding  the  being  forced  into  disgraceful 
concessions,  was  by  disowning  the  character  of  plenipotentiaries. 
If  they  followed  his  advice,  he  promised  to  advocate  the  restoration 
of  Pylos.  The  envoys  fell  into  the  trap,  and  declared,  to  the  aston- 
ishment of  Nicias  and  the  Senate,  that  their  powers  only  extended 
to  explanation  and  discussion.  Amidst  the  outburst  of  indigna- 
tion that  ensued,  Alcibiades  rose  up  to  denounce  the  perfidy  of 
Lacedsemon,  and  proposed  that  the  Argive  ambassadors  should  be 
called  in,  and  a  treaty  concluded  wdth  their  state.  The  interrup- 
tion of  the  meeting,  by  some  unfavourable  omen,  gave  Nicias  an 
opportunity  of  going  to  Sparta ;  but  his  negotiation  failed,  and  a 
treaty  of  alliance  for  a  hundred  years  was  concluded  with  the 
Argive  confederacy  (b.c.  420). 

The  truce,  however,  was  still  in  force,  and  in  the  following 
summer  the  Athenians  appeared  at  the  Olympic  festival,  for  the 
first  time  since  the  beginning  of  the  war,  on  the  invitation  of  their 
new  allies,  the  Eleans.  Their  enemies  looked  forward  with  mali- 
cious hope  to  the  sorry  figure  which  their  exhaustion  through  the 
w'ar  would  compel  them  to  make.  But  Alcibiades  resolved,  not 
merely  to  save  the  credit  of  his  country,  but  to  exalt  its  splendour 
to  a  pitch  unknown  before.  The  Theory^  or  sacred  embassy  to  the 
Olympian  Jove,  of  which  Alcibiades  was  a  member,  was  furnished 
at  his  expense  with  golden  sacrificing  vessels  and  other  magni- 
ficent appointments  for  the  great  procession.  He  himself  entered 
seven  four-horsed  chariots  for  that  race,  in  which  the  princes  of 


B.C.  418.]  BATTLE  OF  MANTINEA.  515 

Thessaly,  Sicily,  and  Cyrene  liad  often  been  competitors,  but  never 
with  so  many  chariots.  lie  carried  off  both  the  tirst  and  second 
prizes  ;  and  having  been  twice  crowned  with  the  sacred  olive,  he 
gave  a  public  banquet  in  a  tent  he  had  provided  for  the  purpose. 
It  is  said  that  the  Ionian  allies  of  Athens  lent  their  aid  to  this 
grand  display  in  honour  of  the  head  of  their  race  (b.c.  419). 

This  exhibition  of  wealth  and  splendour  seems  to  have  been 
intended  in  part  as  a  preface  to  the  campaign  which  Alcibiades 
made  the  same  year  in  Peloponnesus,  but  without  any  decisive 
results.  In  the  following  year,  the  Spartans  took  the  field  in  force 
under  their  king  Agis ;  and,  after  a  campaign  of  varied  fortune, 
the  steady  discipline  of  their  infantry  broke  the  power  of  the 
Argive  confederacy  at  the  decisive  battle  of  Mantinea  (b.c.  418). 
An  aristocratic  revolution,  followed  by  a  democratic  counter-revo- 
lution, still  further  weakened  Argos,  and  put  an  end  to  her  pre- 
tensions to  supremacy  (b.c.  417).  In  all  these  movements  Athens 
took  part  with  Argos,  and  an  Athenian  force  was  present  at  the 
battle  of  Mantinea ;  but  the  truce  with  Sparta  remained  nominally 
unbroken,  though  the  Athenians  in  Pylos  continued  to  make 
incursions  into  Laconia,  and  the  Lacedaemonians  harassed  the 
Athenian  commerce  by  their  privateers. 

The  Athenians  now  took  the  last  and  worst  step  in  their  career 
of  maritime  empire  by  the  conquest  of  Melos,  one  of  the  only  two 
islands  of  the  ^gaean  which  had  submitted  to  them,  the  other 
being  Thera.  The  population  was  purely  Dorian ;  and  there  was 
no  pretext  for  the  conquest  except  the  power  of  effecting  it.  Ten 
years  before,  an  attack  upon  the  place  had  been  repulsed,  and  it 
was  now  only  taken  after  a  siege  of  several  months.  In  their  rage 
at  this  resistance,  the  Athenians  condemned  the  Melians  to  the  fate 
previously  designed  for  the  people  of  Mytilene.  But  in  this  case 
the  sentence  was  fully  executed :  the  adult  males  were  put  to  the 
sword ;  the  women  and  children  were  sold  as  slaves ;  and  the  island 
repeopled  by  a  colony  from  Athens.  This  atrocious  act,  which  is 
said  to  have  been  proposed,  or  at  least  strenuously  supported,  by 
Alcibiades,  proves  his  ascendancy  at  Athens  to  have  been  as  mis- 
chievous as  that  of  Cleon,  or  the  worst  of  the  demagogues.  One 
chief  motive  of  the  outrage — the  humiliation  of  Sparta — was 
achieved  by  her  not  venturing  to  aid  so  faithful  an  ally  in  her 
extremity  (b.c.  416). 

Thucydides  takes  great  pains  to  exhibit  the  destruction  of  the 
Melians  as  the  crowning  act  of  tyranny  on  the  part  of  imperial 
Athens,  before  the  retribution   which  befell  her  by  means   of 


516  RIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.     [Chap.  XIV. 

the  Sicilian  expedition.  To  trace  the  causes  of  this  event,  we 
must  glance  back  at  the  state  of  Sicily  during  the  preceding  fifty 
years.  We  have  seen  that  tlie  splendid  rule  of  the  tyrants  of  the 
Gelonian  dynasty,  after  the  battle  of  Himera,  was  ended  by 
popular  revolutions  in  all  the  cities  (about  B.C.  465).*  These 
revolutions  were  not  merely  political.  Property  changed  hands 
to  a  great  extent ;  and  citizens,  who  had  been  exiled  or  trans- 
planted by  the  tyrants,  returned  to  their  homes  eager  to  avenge 
their  wrongs.  One  fruitful  source  of  dissension  was  the  disposal 
of  the  adherents  of  the  exiled  dynasty,  who  were  at  length  settled 
partly  in  Messana,  and  partly  at  Camarina,  near  SjTacuse.  A 
period  of  great  prosperity  and  intellectual  activity  ensued,  dis- 
turbed however  by  the  remains  of  the  former  dissensions,  by  the 
old  feud  of  race  between  the  Dorian  and  non-Dorian  cities,  and 
by  the  relations  of  the  Grecian  states  to  the  native  Siceli,  who 
rose  up  under  their  prince,  Ducetius,  and  were  with  difficulty 
subdued  by  Syracuse  (about  b.c.  440).  There  was  an  eager 
rivalry  between  this  leading  state  and  Agrigentum,  the  position 
of  which  gave  it  the  command  of  an  extensive  trade  with  Carthage. 
Leontini,  the  native  city  of  the  sophist  Gorgias,  and  the  most 
ancient  colony  in  the  island,  after  Naxos,  would  have  disputed  the 
precedence ;  but  it  was  overshadowed  by  the  proximity  of  Syra- 
cuse. As  a  Chalcidian  colony,  it  was  the  more  impatient  of  sub- 
jection to  a  Dorian  state ;  and  this  enmity  between  Syracuse  and 
Leontini  became  the  indirect  cause  of  the  ill-fated  Athenian  expe- 
dition. At  the  outbreak  of  the  Peloponnesian  "War,  the  Sicilian 
states  were  divided,  like  the  rest  of  Greece,  between  the  alliances 
of  Sparta  and  Athens.  We  have  seen  that  the  former  counted 
on  providing  an  effective  navy  by  the  aid  of  the  Dorian  states  of 
Sicily ;  and  that  the  latter  were  tempted  by  the  Corcyrceans  with 
the  dazzling  prospect  of  the  conquest  of  the  whole  island.  It  was 
doubtless  with  especial  reference  to  this  scheme,  that  Pericles 
uttered  his  emphatic  warnings  against  attempting  new  conquests 
during  the  war.  The  Sicilians,  on  their  part,  showed  no  disposi- 
tion to  join  in  the  general  conflict ;  but  the  Dorians,  led  by  Syra- 
cuse, preferred  the  more  immediate  advantage  of  subduing  the 
Ionian  cities  of  Naxos,  Catana,  and  Leontini ;  the  latter  were  aided 
by  Camarina,  whose  new  inhabitants  were  naturally  hostile  to  the 
Syracusans ;  and  the  neighbouring  Italian  cities  of  Phegium  and 
Locri  sided  respectively  with  the  lonians  and  the  Dorians.  The 
Syracusan  league  proved  too  strong  for  the  other  states.   Leontini 

*  Chap,  xiii.,  p.  434, 


B.C.  415.]  THE  EXPEDITION  TO  SICILY.  517 

was  blockaded  by  sea  and  land,  and  tbe  lonians  implored  the  aid 
of  Athens  by  an  embassy,  at  the  head  of  which  was  the  celebrated 
Gorgias  (b.c.  427).  The  eloquence  of  the  rhetorician  proved  too 
strong  for  the  traditional  policy  of  Pericles,  who  had  been  suc- 
ceeded, as  we  have  seen,  by  politicians  of  very  different  views ; 
and  an  expedition  was  sent  out  under  Laches.  This  armament 
effected  little  beyond  the  reduction  of  Messana  and  an  alliance 
with  the  non-Hellenic  city  of  Egesta ;  and  a  subsequent  expedi- 
tion under  Eurymedon  and  Sophocles  alarmed  the  states  of  Sicily 
into  a  pacification,  to  which  the  Athenian  commanders  assented 
(b.c.  424).  An  aristocratic  revolution  at  Leontini,  aided  by  Syra- 
cuse, caused  a  new  application  to  Athens  by  the  expelled  demo- 
cratic party ;  but  the  peaceful  policy  of  Nicias  was  now  in  the 
ascendant ;  the  armistice  preparatory  to  the  Fifty  Years'  Truce 
had  begun ;  and  the  negotiations  were  not  suffered  to  be  imperilled 
by  a  new  quarrel  in  Sicily  (b.c.  422). 

Six  years  later,  however,  when  the  truce  was  virtually  broken, 
and  Alcibiades  was  at  the  height  of  his  power,  a  fresh  opening 
occurred  in  Sicily  for  his  ambitious  policy.  The  city  of  Egesta, 
in  the  west  of  the  island,  being  hard  pressed  in  a  war  with  Selinus, 
sent  an  embassy  to  Athens,  to  represent  the  danger  that,  if  the 
Dorians  were  allowed  to  reduce  the  whole  island  beneath  their 
power,  they  would  at  length  bring  their  united  force  to  the  aid  of 
the  Peloponnesians.  The  prudence  of  ISTicias  obtained  a  commis- 
sion to  be  sent  out,  to  see  whether  the  Egestans  had  the  ability  of 
performing  their  promise,  to  bear  the  expenses  of  the  war.  The 
bare-faced  imposture  practised  upon  the  envoys  could  hardly  have 
succeeded,  had  not  the  Athenians  been  willing  to  be  deceived  ;  the 
Leontine  exiles  at  Athens  added  their  entreaties  to  those  of  the 
Egestans ;  and  the  eager  pei-suasions  of  Alcibiades,  who  now  saw 
the  opportunity  of  gratifying  his  ambition  and  recovering  the 
wealth  wasted  by  his  profusion,  and  who  held  out  the  prospect  of 
conquering  Carthage  as  well  as  Sicily,  prevailed  over  the  opposi- 
tion of  Nicias  (b.c.  415).  When,  as  a  last  means  of  deterring  the 
people,  Nicias  urged  the  vast  magnitude  that  the  armament  must 
have,  their  only  answer  was  to  take  him  at  his  word,  and  to  vote 
the  largest  force  which  he  himself  would  say  to  be  necessary, 
namely,  100  triremes,  instead  of  sixty,  5000  hoplites,  and  a  pro- 
portionate number  of  light-armed  troops.  The  command  was 
given,  with  the  fullest  powers,  tb  Nicias,  Lamachus,  and  Alci- 
biades, a  choice  which  seemed  at  once  to  secure  a  prudent  balance 
of  power  in  the  military  operations,  and  to  unite  all  parties  in  a 


518  RIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.      [Chap.  XIV. 

common  responsibility.  The  efforts  made  to  equip  the  armament 
with  tlie  utmost  efficiency  were  equalled  by  the  eagerness  of  all 
the  citizens  to  bear  a  part  in  it ;  nor  was  the  excitement  confined 
to  the  military  class.  Merchants  prepared  to  join  the  expedition,  in 
the  hope  of  large  profits  during  its  continuance,  and  a  vast  opening 
for  commerce  from  its  success.  The  city  and  its  ports  resounded 
with  the  din  of  preparation,  amidst  which  were  heard  tlie  voices 
of  the  professional  prophets  chanting  oracles  which  chimed  in  with 
the  universal  confidence  of  success.  To  all  this  animation  the 
strangest  contrast  is  furnished  by  the  apathy  of  Sparta. 

In  the  midst  of  the  excitement,  all  Athens  was  startled  by  a 
strange  and  alarming  incident,  which  still  forms  one  of  the  insolu- 
ble problems  of  history, — the  mutilation  of  the  Ilermse.  It  was 
an  ancient  religious  custom  to  mark  boundaries  by  stones  sacred 
to  the  deities,  and  especially  to  Hermes  (Mercury),  the  god  who 
was  supposed  to  preside  over  ordinary  intercourse  and  traffic.  As 
art  advanced,  these  stones  were  shaped  into  quadrangular  pillars, 
surmounted  by  a  bust  of  the  god,  and  sculptured  with  certain 
other  emblems.*  They  were  set  up,  not  only  to  mark  the  boun- 
daries of  fields,  but  as  milestones  along  the  roads,  at  the  inter- 
section of  cross  ways,  in  the  markets,  and  in  front  of  temples, 
porticoes,  and  private  houses.  They  were  especially  numerous  in 
Athens  and  throughout  the  roads  of  Attica,  where  the  tyrant  Hip- 
parchus  set  up  many  Ilermae,  inscribed  witli  moral  sentiments, 
such  as — 

"  Hipparchus'  monument : — Think  justly  as  you  walk." 
"  Hipparchus'  monument : — Do  not  deceive  thy  friend." 

The  horror  of  the  Athenians,  when,  upon  rising  on  a  morning  in 
May,  they  found  the  Hermoe  throughout  the  city  mutilated  into 
shapeless  blocks,  has  been  well  compared  by  ]\Ir.  Grote  to  the 
excitement  of  a  Spanish  or  Italian  town  on  finding  that  all  the 
images  of  the  Virgin  had  been  defaced  during  the  same  night ; 
but  the  historian  only  offers  this  as  "  a  very  inadequate  parallel 
to  what  was  now  felt  at  Athens,  where  religious  associations  and 
persons  were  far  more  intimately  allied  witb  all  the  proceedings  of 
every-day  life.  It  would  seem  that  the  town  had  become  as  it 
were  godless ;  that  the  streets,  the  market-place,  the  porticoes, 
were  robbed  of  their  divine  protectors  ;  and,  what  was  worse  still, 
that  these  protectors,  having  been  grossly  insulted,  carried  away 
with  them  alienated  sentiments,  wrathful  and  vindictive  instead  of 

*  Specimens  may  be  seen  in  the  British  Museum. 


B.C.  415.]  MUTILATION  OF  THE  HERM^.  519 

tutelary  and  sympathiziDg."  *  The  elation  of  hope  was  suddenly 
struck  down  into  deep  despondency  concerning  the  fate  of  the 
expedition ;  and  the  natural  explanation  would  be  that  the  act 
was  contrived  by  the  opponents  with  this  very  view.  If  so,  their 
plot  was  most  skilfully  laid  to  turn  suspicion  in  the  opposite' 
direction,  and  to  eifect  the  ruin  of  Alcibiades.  His  lawless 
character  was  but  the  type  of  a  spirit  which  pervaded  the  clubs 
of  insolent  young  men,  who  alone  seemed  capable  of  such  a  deed. 
When  a  commission  of  enquiry  was  appointed,  and  evidence 
invited  from  every  quarter,  it  was  no  wonder  that  witnesses  came 
forward  to  depose  to  previous  acts  of  sacrilegious  outrage ;  espe- 
cially under  a  law  which  permitted  the  examination  of  slaves  by 
torture.  On  such  evidence,  Alcibiades  was  publicly  charged  in 
the  ecclesia  with  having  profaned  the  Eleusinian  Mysteries  in  a 
private  house ;  and  the  accuser  went  on,  though  without  a  shadow 
of  proof,  to  charge  him  with  the  mutilation  of  the  Hermse,  as  part 
of  a  plot  for  subverting  the  democracy.  Alcibiades  denied  the 
charge,  and  demanded  an  instant  trial ;  but  his  enemies  preferred 
to  keep  the  accusation  hanging  over  him  during  his  absence. 
Meanwhile,  in  spite  of  the  evil  omen,  all  the  preparations  had 
been  completed,  and  the  expedition  set  sail  from  Pirseus,  amidst 
religious  solemnities  so  imposing,  and  a  concourse  of  spectators  so 
vast,  as  had  never  before  attended  the  departure  of  a  Greek  arma- 
ment. The  animation  of  the  scene  was  increased,  and  the  enthu- 
siasm of  the  sailors  found  vent,  in  a  race  of  all  the  triremes  as  far 
as  -^gina ;  but,  in  the  language  of  the  Greek  religion,  Jove  turned 
aside  all  their  prayers  into  thin  air. 

The  island  of  Corcyra  was  the  appointed  rendezvous  for  the 
fleets  of  Athens  and  her  allies ;  and  the  whole  armament  sailed 
thence  for  the  coast  of  Italy  in  July,  b.c.  415.  They  were  ill 
received  by  the  cities  of  Magna  Grsecia ;  and  at  Rhegium,  which 
they  made  their  first  station,  they  received  news  of  the  inability  of 
Egesta  to  perform  its  promises.  The  objects  of  the  expedition  had 
been  to  protect  Egesta,  to  restore  the  Leontinian  exiles,  and  in 
general  to  make  a  war  of  conquest  upon  the  Dorian  states  of 
Sicily ;  but  no  plan  of  operations  had  yet  been  formed.  The  evils 
of  a  divided  command  became  at  once  apparant.  The  straight- 
forward soldier  Lamachus  could  not  prevail  on  his  colleagues  to 
make  an  immediate  attack  on  Syracuse,  where  the  patriotic  warn- 
ings of  Hermocrates  had  been  scorned  by  the  democratic  party, 
and  the  city  was  almost  destitute  of  defence.     Nicias  would  have 

*  Grote,  History  of  Greece,  vol.  vii.,  p.  231, 


520  RIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.      [Chap.  XIV. 

been  content  with  obtaining  terms  from  Selinus  in  favour  ol 
Egesta;  and  Alcibiades  advised  negotiations  to  unite  Messana* 
and  tlie  other  Chalcidian  cities  in  a  great  league  against  Syracuse 
and  Selinus.  This  plan  was  followed  with  imperfect  success, 
Naxos  alone  joining  the  Athenians,  who  obtained  a  greater  advan- 
tage in  the  surprise  of  Catana,f  which  became  their  head-quarters. 
Here  they  received  bad  news  of  the  progress  of  aifairs  at  home. 
The  orator  Andocides,  a  young  man  only  second  to  Alcibiades  in 
ability  and  e^'il  rejnitation,  had  made  a  disclosure  which,  true  or 
false,  satisfied  the  public  indignation  with  the  execution  of  the 
persons  he  had  denounced  for  the  mutilation  of  the  Hermse.  But 
the  other  charge  against  Alcibiades,  of  profaning  the  mysteries, 
had  been  pressed  so  successfully  that  the  state  galley  called  the 
"  Salaminian  "  now  came  out  to  conduct  him  home  to  stand  his 
trial,  but  with  permission  for  him  to  sail  in  his  own  trireme.  On 
reaching  Thurii,  in  Italy,  he  made  his  escape,  doubtless  judging 
that  all  the  accumulated  charges  which  would  now  be  produced 
against  him  would  prove  his  ruin.  He  was  condemned  to  death 
in  his  absence,  and  his  property  was  confiscated — a  sentence  which 
expressed  the  just  indignation  of  the  people,  but  which  was  pro- 
cured by  his  enemies  through  the  basest  means.  On  receiving  the 
news,  he  exclaimed :  "  I  shall  show  them  that  I  am  alive."  He 
carried  to  Lacedsemon  a  knowledge  of  the  best  means  of  attacking 
Athens,  and  an  ability  to  stimulate  the  natural  Spartan  slowness, 
which  were  worth  more  than  an  army  to  the  Peloponnesians. 

His  departure  cast  a  damp  over  the  armament,  where  he  had 
many  friends,  especially  among  the  allies,  and  where  the  inspira- 
tion of  his  energy  must  have  been  sorely  missed.  Nicias  reverted 
to  his  own  plans,  and  while  he  wasted  time  on  the  north-western 
coast,  the  Syracusans  not  only  completed  their  preparations,  but 
gained  such  confidence  as  to  insult  the  Athenians  in  their  camp  at 
Catana.  Nicias  was  now  shamed  into  action;  and,  when  thus 
roused,  he  was  not  wanting  in  military  skill.  Having  enticed  the 
Syracusans  out  to  attack  Catana,  he  sailed  into  the  Great  Harbour, 
on  the  south  of  the  city,  and  fortified  his  camp  near  the  mouth  of 
the  river  Anapus,  which  runs  into  the  harbour.  Here  he  gained  a 
victory  over  the  army  of  Syracuse,  and  then  retired  into  winter 
quarters  at  Naxos,  to  await  reinforcements  from  Athens  and  the 
allies  in  Sicily  (b.c.  415). 

*  The  capture  of  Mcssana  by  the  Athenians  has  been  mentioned  above,  but  it  was 
now  no  longer  in  their  hands. 

f  This  city  (now  Catania)  was  on  the  eastern  coast,  near  the  foot  of  Etna. 


B.C.  414.]  SIEGE  OF  SYEACUSE.  521 

The  winter  was  spent  at  Syracuse  in  throwing  up  new  defences, 
while  envoys  were  sent  to  Corinth,  the  mother  city,  as  well  as  to 
Sparta,  to  solicit  aid.  And  now  the  revenge  of  Alcibiades  began 
to  work.  He  prevailed  on  the  Spartans  to  send  an  army  to  Syra- 
cuse under  Gylippus ;  while  he  recommended  a  new  method  of 
carrying  on  the  war  at  home,  the  eifect  of  which  we  shall  soon  see. 
In  the  spring  of  b.c.  414,  Nicias  and  Lamachus  invested  Syracuse. 
The  siege  that  followed  is  one  of  the  most  memorable  in  history 
for  the  efforts  of  the  defenders,  the  sufferings  and  final  fate  of  the 
assailants,  and  the  political  magnitude  of  the  result;  but  for  its 
long  and  intricate  details  we  must  refer  the  reader  to  the  special 
histories  of  Greece.  At  first  all  went  well  with  the  Athenians, 
who  completed  their  circumvallation,  except  at  one  point,  defeated 
the  Syracusans  in  contests  for  certain  posts,  and  established  their 
fleet  in  the  Great  Harbour,  so  that  the  besieged  began  to  sound 
Nicias  respecting  terms.  Satisfied  with  so  much  success,  Nicias 
was  content  to  wait  for  the  surrender  of  the  city.  The  bolder 
counsels  of  Lamachus  had  been  lost  to  the  army  by  his  death  in 
one  of  the  early  attacks  on  the  Syracusan  outposts. 

Such  was  the  position  of  affairs  when  Gylippus  arrived  at  Himera 
with  only  two  Corinthian  and  two  Lacedsemonian  ships.  He  soon 
raised  an  army  of  3000  men,  and  entered  Syracuse  unopposed  by 
Nicias,  announcing  himself  as  the  forerunner  of  a  larger  force  from 
Sparta.  His  insulting  message  to  the  Athenians,  offering  them  a 
five  days'  truce  to  evacuate  the  island,  indicated  the  spirit  he  was 
likely  to  infuse  into  the  besieged ;  and  his  vigorous  operations 
soon  determined  the  neutral  cities  of  Sicily  to  espouse  the  cause  of 
Syracuse.  His  attacks  on  the  Athenian  lines,  and  his  counter- 
works, broke  up  their  blockade ;  and  the  arrival  of  thirty  triremes 
from  Corinth  and  her  allies  enabled  him  to  dispute  the  mastery  of 
the  sea.  In  the  end,  Nicias  retired  to  the  headland  of  Plemmy- 
rium,  on  the  southern  side  of  the  Great  Harbour,  where  he  was 
as  much  besieged  as  a  besieger.  He  sent  to  Athens  an  urgent 
demand  for  the  dispatch  of  reinforcements  under  a  new  general,  as 
his  health  and  spirits  were  utterly  broken  down.  A  new  expedi- 
tion was  prepared,  under  Demosthenes  and  Eurymedon,  but  the 
people  insisted  on  retaining  Nicias  in  his  command  (b.c.  414). 

Under  these  circumstances  it  was  mere  affectation  to  regard  the 
Fifty  Years'  Truce  as  any  longer  in  force ;  and  in  the  spring  of 
B.C.  413  it  was  formally  ended  by  the  renewed  Lacedaemonian 
invasion  of  Attica,  under  the  king  Agis.  But,  unlike  former 
invasions,  this  was  no  mere  incursion  for  ravaging  the  country. 


522  RIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.      [Chap.  XIV. 

By  the  advice  of  Alcibiades,  a  permanent  fortified  station  was 
established  at  Decelea,  a  village  on  the  ridge  of  Mount  Fames, 
about  fourteen  miles  north  of  Athens.  The  Lacedaemonian  gar- 
rison were  always  ready  to  sally  forth  to  ravage  the  plain  of 
Athens ;  and,  among  innumerable  other  annoyances,  a  constant 
refuge  was  provided  for  the  fugitive  slaves.  Supplies  were  cut  off 
from  the  city,  which  was  now  placed  in  a  permanent  state  of  siege 
on  the  land  side  ;  and  scarcity  was  soon  felt  within  the  walls.  Of 
all  imaginable  plans,  this  was  the  best  fitted  to  wear  out  the 
Athenians  into  submission. 

But  all  this  could  not  turn  aside  the  Athenians  from  their  great 
scheme  of  conquest.  They  not  only  sent  out  to  Sicily  a  fleet  of 
75  triremes,  with  5000  hoplites  and  a  corresponding  light-armed 
force,  but  they  spared  30  triremes  more  to  ravage  the  coasts  of 
Laconia.  At  Syracuse,  meanwhile,  their  affairs  seemed  desperate. 
They  had  lost  their  fortified  station  at  Plemmyrium,  with  most  of 
their  stores  and  provisions ;  they  had  suffered  the  disgrace  of  a 
naval  defeat ;  and  now  they  were  reduced  to  a  fortified  camp  at 
the  innermost  part  of  the  Great  Harbour,  where  their  ships  were 
hauled  up  on  the  beach.  It  was  but  a  deceitful  hope  that  raised 
their  spirits,  when  the  splendid  armament  of  Demosthenes  sailed 
into  the  Great  Harbour.  The  new  general  was  foiled  in  his  attempts 
to  retake  the  suburb  of  Epipolse,  on  the  heights  commanding  the 
city  on  the  land  side.  Reduced  again  to  inaction,  and  with  sick- 
ness breaking  out  among  the  troops,  he  saw  that  a  retreat  had 
become  inevitable  ;  and  he  proposed  to  use  the  splendid  force  that 
still  remained  in  expelling  the  Lacedaemonians  from  their  new 
position  in  Attica.  But  Nicias  did  not  dare  to  return  to  Athens 
unsuccessful.  His  colleague  at  last  prevailed  upon  him  to  extricate 
the  armament  from  the  Great  Harbour,  and  take  up  a  new  posi- 
tion at  Catana.  The  fleet  was  ready  to  sail  on  the  following  morn- 
ing, when  the  superstition  of  Nicias  was  alarmed  by  an  eclipse  of 
the  moon,  and  the  soothsayers  bade  him  postpone  the  departure 
for  a  month  (b.c.  413,  August  27).  Meanwhile  Gylippus  attacked 
the  Athenians  both  by  land  and  sea.  He  was  again  victorious  in 
the  naval  engagement,  and  the  general  Euiymedon  was  slain. 
The  Syracusans  now  blockaded  the  mouth  of  the  harbour,  and 
Nicias  gathered  his  whole  fleet,  still  numbering  110  ships,  to  force 
the  passage.  The  Syracusans  had  only  76  triremes ;  but  to  these 
were  added  a  number  of  small  vessels,  manned  by  young  men  of 
the  best  families,  like  the  Danish  flo,ating  batteries  at  the  battle 
of  Copenhagen.     The  Great  Harbour  of  Syracuse  is  about  five 


B.C.  413.]  DESTRUCTION"  OF  THE  ATHENIANS.  523 

miles  in  circuit ;  and  within  this  space  the  two  fleets  joined  battle 
in  full  sight  of  the  people  of  Syracuse  and  the  land  force  of  the 
Athenians.  The  conflict  was  such  as  might  have  been  expected 
from  those  who  fought,  on  the  one  side  for  liberty,  on  the  other 
for  safety  and  the  last  hope  of  empire.  When  at  last  the  Athe- 
nians began  to  retire  towards  the  shore,  no  deity  appeared,  as 
at  Salamis,  to  upbraid  their  retreat  and  reanimate  them  to  new 
efforts  ;  but  a  despairing  cry  arose  from  the  soldiers  on  the  shore, 
some  of  whom  rushed  into  the  water  to  aid  in  saving  the  ships. 
"With  their  force  reduced  to  60  vessels,  the  generals  would  still 
have  made  one  more  effort  to  break  out,  but  the  crews  refused  ; 
and  it  only  remained  to  abandon  the  ships  and  draw  off  the  land 
forces  to  some  friendly  city,  while  the  Syracusans  were  occupied 
with  rejoicings  for  their  victory,  and  with  a  feast  of  Hercules.  A 
stratagem  of  Hermocrates  induced  Nicias  to  postpone  the  departure 
till  the  next  day ;  when  a  retreat  began,  as  disastrous  as  any  that 
history  records.  The  two  generals  having  been  compelled  to  divide 
their  forces,  Demosthenes  was  first  surrounded  by  the  pursuei*s, 
and  surrendered  after  a  brave  resistance,  with  6000  men.  Nicias 
continued  his  retreat,  pursued,  by  Gylippus,  till  he  reached  the 
river  Asinarus,  in  the  attempt  to  cross  which  the  army  became 
a  confused  struggling  mass,  and  Nicias  had  no  choice  but  to 
surrender.*  Only  a  few  stragglers  escaped  to  Catana.  The  sur- 
vivors, who  did  not  exceed  10,000  men  out  of  40,000,  were  crowded 
together  in  the  quarries  about  the  city,  with  no  shelter  from  the 
burning  sun  and  cold  nights  of  autumn,  supplied  with  only  half  of 
a  slave's  rations  of  bread,  and  half  a  pint  of  water  for  every  man 
each  day.  The  sick  and  wounded  soon  died,  and  their  unburied 
bodies  filled  the  pits  of  the  quarries  with  stench  and  disease  ;  till, 
after  seventy  days,  the  Syracusans,  who  had  at  first  come  daily  to 
the  quarries,  with  their  wives  and  children,  to  gloat  over  the 
sufferings  of  the  captives,  were  driven  by  regard  to  their  own 
safety  to  remove  all  except  the  native  Athenians  and  the  Greeks 
who  had  joined  them  from  the  Italian  and  Sicilian  cities.  While 
these  remained  to  work  in  the  pits,  which  we  may  suppose  to  have 
been  cleared  of  some  of  their  horrors,  the  survivors  were  sold  as 
slaves.  Many  captives  of  both  classes  would  doubtless  ultimately 
be  admitted  to  ransom ;  and  their  fate  is  gilded  by  a  ray  of  that 
light  which  the  gentler  arts  have  often  shed  over  the  passions  of  war, 

*  The  surrender  was  probably  made  about  twenty-four  or  twenty-five  days  aftei 
the  eclipse  of  August  27,  that  is,  on  the  21st  or  22nd  of  September.  (See  Grote, 
History  of  Greece,  vol.  vii.,  p.  4*79,  with  his  remarks  on  the  earlier  date  of  Clinton.) 


524  RIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.       [Chap.  XIV. 

Tlie  popularity  of  Euripides,  tlien  at  its  lieif^lit.  was  almost  as 
great  in  Sicily  as  at  Athens  ;  and  the  poet  is  said  to  have  lived  to 
receive  the  thanks  of  many  of  the  returned  prisoners  for  the  kind- 
ness they  had  o1)tained  from  their  masters  through  being  ahle  tc 
recite  scenes  and  passages  from  his  dramas.  Kicias  and  Demos- 
thenes were  both  condemned  to  death  by  the  council  of  the  Syra- 
cusans  and  their  allies, — a  measure  urged  especially  by  the  Cor- 
inthians, in  opposition  both  to  Ilermocrates,  who  wished  to  spare 
them,  and  to  Gylippus,  who  would  gladly  have  carried  to  Sparta 
the  great  enemy  who  had  fortified  Pylos,  and  the  friend  who  had 
always  pleaded  for  peace.  Their  bodies  were  exposed  before  the 
gates  of  Syracuse  ;  and  when  a  monument  was  erected  at  Athens 
to  the  memory  of  those  who  had  fallen  in  the  expedition,  it  was 
inscribed  with  the  name  of  Demosthenes,  while  that  of  Xicias  was 
omitted.  The  energy  and  courage  he  displayed  in  the  retreat, 
though  suffering  from  an  incurable  malady,  were  not  deemed  a 
sufficient  atonement  for  the  irresolution  which  ruined  the  enter- 
prise from  the  first.  The  calm  judgment  of  history  on  the  general 
ought  neither  to  be  blinded  by  the  virtues  of  the  man,  nor  to  with- 
hold its  admiration  from  those  virtues  and  its  pity  from  his  fate. 

As  the  expedition  to  Sicily  was  the  greatest  military  effort  ever 
made  by  a  Grecian  power,  so  its  destruction  was  the  heaviest  blow 
short  of  destruction  that  any  Greek  state  had  ever  suffered. 
Combined  with  the  constant  pressure  from  the  garrison  in  Decelea, 
it  was  decisive  of  the  issue  of  the  war,  the  last  nine  years  of  which 
(b.c.  413 — 404)  were  occupied  with  the  brilliant  but  unavailing 
efforts  of  the  Athenians  to  retrieve  the  disaster.  Worse  even  than 
the  consumption  of  their  resources  in  men,  ships,  and  money,  was 
the  loss  of  their  naval  prestige ;  and  that  not  in  Sicily  alone,  for 
a  Corinthian  fleet  had  lately  fought  a  drawn  battle  with  them 
near  Naupactus.  There  remained,  however,  to  Athens  her  elasti- 
city of  spirit,  which  soon  rebounded  from  the  first  blow  of  the  fatal 
news.  While  the  people  were  occupied  with  measures  for  defending 
the  city,  providing  a  new  fleet,  and  repairing  the  embarrassment  of 
the  finances,  a  fresh  calamity  was  announced,  in  the  revolt  of 
Chios,  hitherto  thetnost  faithful  of  the  allies  (b.c.  412). 

The  news  of  the  Sicilian  disaster  had  been  received  in  Persia  as 
a  signal  for  a  great  effort  to  overthrow  the  empire  of  Athens  in 
Asia  Minor ;  and  the  satraps  of  that  country  began  now  to  take  a 
prominent  part  in  the  affairs  of  Greece.  The  most  powerful  of 
these  was  Tissaphernes,  the  satrap  of  Ionia  and  the  south-western 
coast ;  and  next  to  him,  Pharnabazus,  who  governed  the  country 


B.C.  412.]        EEVOLT  OF  CHIOS  AN£)  OTHER  ALLIES.  525 

near  the  Hellespont.  During  the  winter,  both  sent  embassies  tc 
Sparta,  where  envoys  appeared  also  from  Chios,  Lesbos,  Eubcea, 
and  other  subject  allies  of  Athens,  seeking  encouragement  to 
revolt.  Their  appeal  was  eagerly  supported  by  Alcibiades,  who 
prevailed  on  the  Lacedaemonians  to  begin  operations  at  Chios. 
While  their  amiament  was  preparing,  he  himself  sailed  with  the 
advanced  squadron  under  Chalcideus  to  Chios,  where  his  presence 
was  the  signal  for  revolt.  Erythrse,  Clazomenae,  Teos,  Miletus, 
and  the  island  of  Lesbos  were  led  by  the  energy  of  Alcibiades  to 
follow  the  example ;  while  Chalcideus  made  a  treaty  with  Tissa- 
phemes,  promising  the  restoration  to  Persia,  not  only  of  the 
Greek  cities  in  Asia,  but  of  all  the  territory  the  king  Jiad  ever 
held  in  Greece,  and  placed  Miletus  in  his  hands  as  an  earnest. 
Thus  did  the  Spartans  complete  the  shameful  alliance  with  the 
common  enemy,  which  they  had  contemplated  from  the  beginning 
of  the  war.  The  combined  revolt  of  the  Asiatic  Greeks  from 
Athens  was  only  prevented  by  the  fidelity  of  Samos ;  but  the 
Athenians  had  now  to  contend  with  the  whole  force  of  Sparta, 
supported  by  Tissaphernes,  in  the  waters  which  she  had  long  re- 
garded as  her  own.  From  this  first  peril  she  was  extricated  by 
her  own  energy  and  the  jealousies  of  her  foes. 

As  soon  as  the  news  of  the  revolt  of  Chios  reached  Athens,  the 
1000  talents,  set  aside  by  Pericles  as  a  sacred  reserve,  were  de- 
voted to  the  emergency,*  and  a  fleet  was  sent  out  to  Samos  as  the 
head-quarters.  Lesbos  and  Clazomense  were  soon  recovered,  the 
Chians  were  defeated,  and  a  victory  was  gained  over  the  Pelopon- 
nesians  at  Miletus.  The  fresh  Lacedaemonian  fleets,  which  ap- 
peared on  the  coast  of  Asia,  were  occupied  less  in  supporting  the 
revolt  than  in  pressing  Tissaphernes  to  modify  the  late  treaty,  till 
the  satrap  and  his  new  allies  became  mutually  disgusted.  This 
result  was  owing  chiefly  to  the  restless  intriguer,  who  seemed  cre- 
ated to  be  in  turn  the  evil  genius  of  all  who  trusted  him. 

It  was  in  the  nature  of  things  that  the  popularity  of  Alcibiades 
at  Sparta  should  be  short-lived.  The  volatile  Athenian  tempera- 
ment, exaggerated  in  him  to  the  highest  pitch,  would  have  been 
disgusting  enough  to  the  Spartan  gravity,  even  if  the  reckless 
voluptuary  had  been  able  to  control  his  actual  profligacy.  Instead 
of  this,  he  chose  for  his  victim  the  wife  of  Agis  himself,  and  so 
made  the  king  his  relentless  enemy.  Meanwhile,  the  people  be- 
gan to  ascribe  their  want  of  success  on  the  coast  of  Asia  to  the 
treachery  of  Alcibiades  ;    and  Agis  procured  a  decision  of  the 

*  See  p.  496. 


520  KIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.      [Chap.  XIV. 

Epliors  to  send  out  instructions  for  his  death.  He  was  warned  in 
time  to  escape  to  Tissaphernes,  on  whom  he  urged  it  as  the  inter- 
est of  Persia  not  to  give  a  decisive  superiority  to  either  of  the  con- 
tending parties.  Tissaphernes  was  induced  to  keep  the  Pelopon- 
nesian  fleet  inactive,  first  on  various  pretexts,  and  then  by  bribing 
the  Spartan  commander  ;  but,  when  Alcibiades  tried  to  persuade 
him  to  make  a  treaty  with  Athens,  the  satrap  remained  faithful  to 
liis  neutral  policy. 

Alcibiades  seems  now  to  have  satisfred  his  resentment  against 
Athens,  and  to  have  convinced  himself  that  his  native  state  was 
the  best  field  for  his  ambition.  Failing  to  secure  the  aid  of 
Tissaphernes,  he  opened  negotiations  with  the  Athenian  com- 
manders at  Samos,  oflfering  the  alliance  of  Persia  as  the  price  of 
his  restoration.  lie  proposed,  as  an  essential  condition  of  aid 
from  Persia,  that  the  democratic  government  should  be  over- 
thrown at  Athens,  where  the  recent  disasters  had  encouraged  the 
aristocratic  party  to  prepare  for  a  revolution.  The  discovery  that 
Alcibiades  M^as  unable  to  perform  his  promises  on  behalf  of  Tissa- 
phernes came  too  late  to  stay  the  intrigue  at  Athens.  The  clubs 
paved  the  way  by  indirect  attacks  on  the  constitution  as  unsuited 
to  the  present  exigencies  of  the  state  ;  while  private  assassinations 
spread  terror  through  the  democratic  party.  An  irregular  ecclesia 
adopted  a  new  constitution,  which  vested  the  whole  power  of  the 
state  in  a  body  of  Four  Hundred,  subject  to  no  other  check  than 
that  supplied  by  the  convocation  of  five  thousand  citizens,  of  their 
own  selection,  at  such  times  and  in  such  manner  as  they  chose. 
The  Five  Thousand  were,  in  fact,  a  mere  pretence  of  popular 
government,  added  to  the  despotism  of  the  Four  Hundred.  The 
principal  leaders  in  the  revolution  were  Pisander  and  the  orator 
Antiphon  (b.c.  411). 

When  the  news  of  the  revolution  reached  Samos,  the  army, 
convoked  by  Thrasybulus  and  Thrasyllus,  took  an  oath  to  maintain 
the  democracy,  and  constituted  themselves  as  an  ecclesia,  in  place 
of  the  popular  assembly  that  no  longer  existed  at  Athens.  Thus 
the  two  parties  formed,  as  it  were,  two  republics  on  the  opposite 
shores  of  the  ^Egaean,  and  a  conflict  for  the  mastery  seemed  immi- 
nent. The  army  at  Samos  was  tempted  by  the  weight  which 
Alcibiades  could  throw  into  their  scale  through  his  own  ability  and 
the  alliance  of  Tissaphernes.  Distrust  was  still  strong,  however,  and 
it  was  not  without  reluctance  that  the  military  ecclesia  passed  the 
vote  for  his  recall  and  for  his  appointment  as  one  of  the  generals. 
The  envoys  of  the  Four  Hundred  were  sent  back  to  Athens  with  a 


B.C.  411.]  KECALL  OF  ALCIBIADES.  527 

demand  for  the  restoration  of  the  old  Senate  of  Five  Hundred,  to 
govern  in  conjunction  with  the  Assembly  of  Five  Thousand.  The 
tyranny  of  the  Four  Hundred  had  by  this  time  deprived  them  of 
all  popular  support,  and  dissensions  had  arisen  between  the  extreme 
and  the  more  moderate  party  among  themselves,  the  former  headed 
by  the  orator  Antiphon,  the  latter  by  Theramenes,  whose  unprin- 
cipled policy  gained  him  the  nickname  oiBuskiii — a  boot  that  fitted 
either  foot.  The  news  from  Samos  impelled  each  party  to  consult 
its  own  safety.  The  violent  faction  sought  the  support  of  Sparta, 
and  offered  to  put  Piraeus  in  her  hands.  While  the  Spartans 
prepared  an  expedition  with  their  accustomed  slowness,  the  demo- 
cratic party  met  in  arms  at  Piraeus,  where  their  strength  lay  in 
the  maritime  population,  reconstituted  the  ecclesia,  and  adjourned 
to  Athens.  An  attempt  of  the  Four  Hundred  to  negotiate  was 
interrupted  by  the  approach  of  the  Lacedaemonian  fleet,  which, 
finding  Piraeus  guarded,  bore  up  for  Euboea.  An  Athenian  fleet, 
manned  and  launched  in  haste,  was  utterly  defeated,  and  the 
island  was  lost  to  Athens.  While  the  Lacedaemonians  again 
neglected  to  follow  up  their  success  by  blockading  the  shores  of 
Attica,  and  supporting  their  party  in  the  city,  the  aristocrats  were 
left  at  the  mercy  of  the  indignant  people.  The  popular  ecclesia 
was  restored,  but  on  the  basis  of  the  new  body  of  Five  Thousand, 
in  which  every  citizen  able  to  furnish  himself  with  a  full  stand  of 
arms  and  armour  might  be  enrolled ;  but  the  restriction  was  soon 
neglected,  and  the  citizenship  became  universal  as  before.  The  old 
magistracies  and  forms  of  government  were  revived  ;  but  the  pay- 
ment for  attendance  in  the  courts  remained  abolished.  The  Four 
Hundred,  after  a  reign  of  only  four  months,  were  deposed  and 
condemned  to  death,  with  the  forfeiture  of  their  goods  and  the 
demolition  of  their  houses.  Most  of  them  made  their  escape  ; 
among  the  few  executed  was  the  orator  Antiphon,  whose  magnifi- 
cent speech  at  his  trial  delighted  the  dicasts,  without  averting  his 
fate.  Lastly,  a  vote  was  passed  for  the  recall  of  Alcibiades  to 
Athens  (b.c.  411). 

It  seemed  as  if  Alcibiades  were  now  animated  by  a  nobler  spirit 
than  his  selfish  and  unprincipled  versatility.  Restored  to  his 
position  in  the  state,  and  virtually  placed  at  its  head,  he  would 
not  return  till  he  could  bring  with  him  a  worthy  peace-offering  of 
victory.  He  saw  that  the  contest  must  be  fought  out  between  the 
fleets  on  the  shores  of  Asia ;  for  the  possession  of  Decelea  and 
Euboea  by  the  enemy,  however  distressing,  threatened  no  imm& 
diate  danger  to  Athens.     On  the  other  hand,  the  LacedaBmonian," 


528  RIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.      [Chap.  XIV. 

were  at  length  aroused,  very  much  through  his  own  teaching,  to 
the  importance  of  luival  operations.  Since  the  catastrophe  in 
Sicily,  their  fleets  were  superior  in  number  to  those  of  Athens,  and 
not  inferior  in  tactics  and  discipline.  They  had  also  establislied 
the  new  annual  office  of  Admiral  {Nauarclms)^  free  from  the  con- 
trol of  the  Ephors,  to  which  the  kings  were  subject,  and  resem- 
bling in  power  that  of  the  Athenian  General  {StraUgus). 

Distrust  of  the  vacillating  policy  of  Tissaphernes  had  caused  the 
Spartan  admiral,  Mindarus,  to  form  closer  relations  witli  Pharaa-J 
bazus,  and  to  transfer  his  operations  to  the  Hellespont  and  Pro- 
pontis.  His  defeat  by  the  Athenians  under  Thrasyllus,  near  the 
promontory  of  Cynossema  (the  Doc/s  Monument)  *  in  the  straits, 
was  followed  by  the  surrender  of  Cyzicus  to  Athens ;  and  he  was 
again  defeated  by  Alcibiades  near  Abydos.  The  Athenian's  wily 
course  was  nearly  cut  short  in  the  following  winter,  when,  visiting 
Tissaphernes  as  if  he  were  still  a  friend,  he  was  cast  into  prison  at 
Sardis.  He  contrived  to  effect  his  escape,  and  reached  the  Helles- 
pont at  the  critical  moment  when  Mindarus  and  Pharnabazus  were 
besieging  Cyzicus  by  sea  and  land.  His  masterly  tactics  with  the 
fleet  gained  a  great  victory,  both  by  sea  and  land,  in  which  Min- 
darus was  slain,  and  his  Secretary  (the  Spartan  name  for  the 
second  in  command)  described  the  result  in  this  laconic  despatch 
to  the  Ephors : — "  Our  luck  is  gone  i  Mindarus  is  slain :  the  men 
are  starving  :  we  know  not  what  to  do."  (b.c.  410.) 

The  battle  of  Cyzicus  made  the  Athenians  masters  of  the  Helles- 
pont, the  Propontis,  and  the  Bosporus,  so  that  Athens  again  re- 
ceived her  supplies  of  corn  from  the  Euxine.  The  Spartans  made 
overtures  for  peace,  which  were  rejected  by  the  Athenians  imder 
the  influence  of  a  new  demagogue,  Cleophon  the  lamp-maker. 
Pharnabazus  gave  active  help  to  his  allies  in  Asia,  especially  in 
defending  Chalcedon,  which  was  besieged  by  Alcibiades.  The 
famous  Hermocrates,  who  commanded  the  Syracusan  contingent 
of  the  Peloponnesian  fleet,  aided  the  Ephesians  in  defeating  the 
Athenians  under  Thrasyllus ;  and,  in  this  year,  the  garrison  of 
Pylos  at  length  surrendered  to  the  Lacedaemonians  (b.c.  409). 
But  these  successes  were  fully  counterbalanced  by  the  progress  of 
Alcibiades  on  the  Bosporus,  which  was  crowned  by  the  capture 
of  Byzantium  towards  the  close  of  b.c.  408.  In  the  following 
spring  Alcibiades  returned  to  Athens  in  triumph.  He  was  received 
with  a  public  welcome  worthy  of  the  saviour  of  the  state,  but  many 

*  The  mound  was  supposed  to  mark  the  tomb  of  Hecuba,  the  queen  of  Priam,  who 
was  fabled  to  have  been  transformed  into  a  dog. 


B.C.  407.]  CYRUS  AND  LYSANDER.  529 

a  recollection  of  private  and  public  injury  was  working  secretly  in 
the  minds  of  his  fellow-citizens.  He  was  appointed  sole  com- 
mander of  a  new  armament  of  100  triremes,  1500  hoplites,  and 
150  cavalry ;  but  he  delayed  his  departure  till  September,  in  order 
to  celebrate  with  the  greatest  pomp  those  Eleusinian  Mysteries 
which  he  had  been  charged  with  profaning.  With  his  whole  force, 
he  escorted  the  sacred  procession  along  the  road  from  Athens  to 
Eleusis,  over  the  Thriasian  plain,  which  they  had  not  dared  to 
cross  since  the  Lacedaemonians  had  occupied  Decelea.  Truly  it  is 
one  of  the  strangest  scenes  of  history ;  an  exiled  statesman  re- 
turning to  his  native  city,  from  the  suppression  of  a  revolt  he  had 
himself  instigated,  victorious  over  the  enemy  he  himself  had  aided, 
celebrating  the  great  festival  which  he  had  been  found  guilty  of 
profaning,  in  despite  of  the  garrison  which  had  been  planted  in  the 
country  by  his  own  advice.  Still  stranger  is  it,  when  viewed  in 
contrast  with  the  fate  to  which  he  was  hastening  back. 

During  the  summer  he  had  spent  at  Athens,  the  state  of  affairs 
in  Asia  was  entirely  changed.  The  king  of  Persia  (Darius  II., 
surnamed  ISTothus)  had  resolved  no  longer  to  allow  the  satraps  to 
indulge  their  caprice,  but  to  take  an  active  part  against  the  Athe- 
nians, his  hereditary  enemies.  Darius  had  two  sons,  Artaxerxes 
and  Cyrus.  The  latter,  who  was  the  favourite  of  his  mother  Pary- 
satis,  was  of  an  enthusiastic,  generous,  and  ambitious  temperament, 
and  full  of  eagerness  to  emulate  the  great  ancestor  whose  name  he 
bore.  He  cherished  the  desire  of  vengeance  on  the  Athenians  like 
a  true  Persian ;  and  with  such  feelings  he  was  sent  to  govern  the 
satrapies  of  Lydia,  the  Greater  Phrygia,  and  Cappadocia,  with  the 
supreme  command  of  the  forces  in  the  west.  Arriving  at  Sardis 
in  the  spring  of  b.c.  407,  he  at  once  entered  into  communication 
with  the  new  admiral  Lysander,  the  most  able  commander  whom 
Sparta  had  yet  sent  forth  to  the  war.  Inferior  to  Brasidas  and 
Gylippus  in  generous  enthusiasm,  he  owed  it  perhaps  to  his  birth 
below  the  rank  of  full  citizenship,  that  he  was  free  from  the  Spar- 
tan narrowness  of  view  and  slowness  of  resolution.  Free  also  from 
the  Spartan  vice  of  corruption,  and  above  the  seductions  of  pleasure, 
he  was  restrained  by  no  scruples  of  humanity  or  good  faith  in  pur- 
suing power  for  his  country  and  glory  for  himself.  An  interview 
at  Sardis  satisfied  Cyrus  and  Lysander  that  they  could  rely  upon 
each  other ;  and  measures  were  concerted  for  carrying  on  the  war 
with  the  help  of  Persian  gold.  Alcibiades  now  found  himself 
compelled  to  raise  elsewhere  the  resources  which  he  had  hoped  for 
from  Tissaphemes.  His  exactions  from  the  subject  states,  his 
VOL.  I. — 34 


530  RIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS,      [Chap.  XIV. 

dissolute  conduct,  and  his  inaction,  disgusted  both  the  allies  and 
his  own  army ;  and  above  all,  the  prestige  of  success  was  damaged 
by  the  defeat  and  death  of  his  lieutenant  Antiochus,  who  fought 
the  Peloponnesian  fleet  off  Notium  during  his  temporary  absence. 
The  distrust,  which  had  not  ceased  when  his  old  offences  were  for- 
given, broke  out  afresh  at  Athens,  and  he  was  once  more  driven 
into  exile.  He  was  replaced  in  the  command  by  ten  generals,  of 
whom  Conon  was  the  chief,  while  Lysander  was  succeeded,  at  the 
expiration  of  his  year's  service  as  admiral,  by  Callicratidas,  a  blunt 
Spartan  of  the  old  school.  Hampered  by  the  jealousy  of  Lysander, 
and  receiving  but  faint  support  from  Cyrus,  Callicratidas  yet  suc- 
ceeded, by  his  own  energy,  in  reinforcing  his  fleet  from  Miletus  and 
Chios ;  and  then,  sailing  to  Lesbos,  he  took  Methymna,  and  laid 
siege  to  Mytilene,  where  the  inferior  fleet  of  Conon  narrowly  escaped 
capture.  By  immense  exertions,  a  new  armament  was  sent  out 
from  Athens,  and  the  ten  generals  found  themselves  in  command 
of  150  ships  at  Samos,  whence  they  sailed  to  the  group  of  islets 
called  Arginusa3,  opposite  the  south-eastern  coast  of  Lesbos.  Here 
one  of  the  greatest  sea-fights  of  the  whole  war  ended  in  the  total 
defeat  of  the  Peloponnesians,  with  the  loss  of  77  vessels  and  their 
admiral  Callicratidas.  We  cannot  stay  to  relate  the  cruel  injustice 
with  which  the  Athenians  sullied  their  victory  by  the  execution  of 
six  of  the  ten  generals  on  the  charge  of  not  making  suflicient  efforts 
to  save  the  crews  from  the  Athenian  wrecks  (b.c.  406).  This  year 
is  memorable  in  literary  history  for  the  deaths  of  Sophocles  and 
Euripides,  events  which  gave  occasion  for  the  masterly  criticism  of 
the  Athenian  tragedians,  which  Aristophanes  brought  out  the  next 
year  under  a  comic  guise,  in  his  play  of  the  Frogs. 

The  victory  of  Arginusse  was  the  last  ray  of  glory  which  the 
setting  sun  of  Athenian  empire  threw  upon  its  arms.  The 
Spartans  were  induced,  by  the  common  interest  and  the  urgency 
of  Cyrus,  to  restore  the  command  to  Lysander,  though  not  with 
the  title  of  admiral.  Evading  the  superior  force  of  Conon,  he 
laid  siege  to  Lampsacus  on  the  Hellespont.  The  city  fell  before 
the  arrival  of  the  Athenian  fleet,  which  took  up  a  most  imfavour- 
able  position  on  the  exposed  beach  of  ^gospotami  (the  Goat's 
River).  Failing  to  draw  out  the  wary  Laceda?monian  from  his 
stronger  station,  the  Athenians  began  to  regard  him  with  con- 
tempt. Discipline  was  relaxed,  and  the  men  strayed  from  their 
ships.  In  vain  did  Alcibiades,  who  was  residing  near  the  spot, 
warn  the  commanders,  while  Lysander  watched  his  opportunity. 
It  came  on  the  fifth  day,  when  the  Athenians  had  left  their  ships 


B.C.  404.]  CAPTURE  OF  ATHENS.  531 

SO  deserted,  that  Lysander  had  only  to  cross  the  strait  in  order  to 
make  himself  master,  almost  without  resistance,  of  the  Athenian 
navy,  numbering  180  vessels,  of  which  scarcely  a  dozen  escaped. 
The  prisoners,  amounting  to  nearly  4000,  were  put  to  death  by 
Lysander.  The  battle  of  ^gospotami,  which  virtually  decided 
the  war,  was  fought  in  September,  b.c.  405,  In  November, 
Lysander  appeared  at  ^gina,  having  in  the  meantime  received 
the  submission  of  all  the  Athenian  allies,  except  Samos ;  and 
while  he  blockaded  Piraeus,  the  Peloponnesian  army  under  Agis 
invested  Athens  on  the  land  side.  After  a  siege  of  four  months, 
the  city  was  driven  by  famine  to  surrender  at  discretion. 
The  allies  who  had  met  at  Sparta  twenty-seven  years  before,  to 
take  counsel  for  the  overthrow  of  her  empire,  reassembled,  their 
work  at  length  accomplished,  to  decide  upon  her  fate.  Her  im- 
placable enemies,  the  Thebans  and  Corinthians,  proposed  nothing 
less  than  that  the  city  should  be  razed  to  the  ground,  and  her 
people  sold  as  slaves.  But  the  Spartans,  with  all  their  faults,  still 
cherished  the  spirit  of  Hellenic  patriotism,  and  refused  to  forget 
the  days  of  Salamis  and  Plataea.  They  were  content  with  terms 
which  would,  as  they  supposed,  disable  Athens  from  again  be- 
coming their  rival,  and  reduce  her,  under  an  aristocratic  govern- 
ment, to  the  rank  of  a  subject  member  of  their  alliance.  The 
Long  Walls  and  the  fortifications  of  the  Piraeus  were  to  be  demol- 
ished ;  all  foreign  possessions,  beyond  the  confines  of  Attica  itself, 
were  to  be  resigned ;  the  navy  was  to  be  surrendered,  with  the 
exception  of  twelve  sail ;  all  exiles  were  to  be  restored ;  and 
Athens  was  to  become  the  ally  of  Sparta.  ISTo  words  could 
describe  the  humiliation  of  Athens  like  the  simple  fact,  that  her 
people  received  such  terms  as  these  with  joy. 

The  execution  of  the  sentence  was  entrusted  to  Lysander,  who 
sailed  into  Piraeus  with  his  fleet  in  the  month  of  March,  b.c.  40^, 
and  kept  possession  of  the  city  and  ports  till  the  fortifications, 
docks,  and  arsenals  were  demolished.  The  work  proceeded  amidst 
a  display  of  insensate  joy,  as  short-sighted  on  the  part  of  the 
victors,  as  it  was  ruthlessly  insulting  to  the  vanquished.  The 
walls  fell  to  the  sound  of  flutes  and  amidst  the  performances  of 
dancers  crowned  with  garlands  ;  and,  as  the  efibrts  of  the  work- 
men threw  down  mass  after  mass  of  the  solid  masonry,  the 
Peloponnesians  exulted  in  the  belief  that  freedom  began  for 
Greece  that  day.  Far  better  would  it  have  been,  as  the  orator 
Lysias  said,  "  for  Greece  to  have  shorn  her  hair  on  the  fall  of 
Athens,  and  mourned  at  the  tomb  of  her  heroes,  as  over  the 


532  EIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.     [Chap.  XIV. 

sepulchre  of  liberty  itself :  "  for  Athens  had  been  her  intellectual 
light  and  liberty,  and  the  well-spring  of  her  freedom,  in  spite  of 
her  abuses  of  the  sacred  gift.  These  abuses  were  fully  punished 
by  the  loss  of  her  power  and  the  humiliation  of  her  pride ;  but  no 
proud  insulting  foe  could  rob  her,  even  in  that  hour,  of  her  past 
glories,  or  of  her  lasting  empire — the  intellectual  supremacy  of 
the  world.  The  shores  of  Salamis  lay  unchanged  in  face  of  the 
scene  of  ruin,  and  the  monuments  of  the  Acropolis  looked  calmly 
down  on  the  commotion ;  the  plays  of  ^schylus,  Sophocles,  and 
Aristophanes  were  still  acted ;  Socrates  still  taught,  and  Plato 
wrote ;  the  highest  fruits  of  philosophy  and  eloquence  awaited 
their  maturity  in  coming  years ;  and  even  when  all  Greece  had 
shared  the  ruin  which  fell  that  day  on  the  Athenian  empire,  and 
the  liberty  which  the  Hellenic  states  had  sacrificed  by  their  dissen- 
sions had  been  surrendered  to  the  power  of  Kome,  the  intellectual 
supremacy  of  Athens  widened  with  the  power  of  her  conqueror, 
till  she  became  no  longer  the  seat  of  arts  and  letters  for  Greece, 
but  the  University  of  the  World. 

Meanwhile,  though  she  never  regained  her  former  empire,  she 
was  not  doomed  to  remain  long  in  the  depths  of  her  political 
degradation.  While  the  Spartans  demolished  her  fortifications, 
they  were  content  to  leave  the  destruction  of  her  constitution  to 
her  own  factions.  The  returned  exiles,  headed  by  Critias,  joined 
with  Theramenes,  who  had  taken  the  leading  part  in  the  negotia- 
tions with  Sparta,  in  establishing  an  oligarchical  government.  A 
committee  of  Thirty,  appointed  nominally  to  draw  up  a  new  con- 
stitution, took  all  the  power  into  their  own  hands,  and  soon  earned, 
by  their  lawless  proceedings,  and  especially  by  the  judicial  murders 
of  their  political  opponents  and  private  enemies,  the  name  of  the 
TuiRTY  Tyrants.  A  Spartan  garrison  remained  in  the  Acropolis 
to  support  this  Eeign  of  Terror ;  while  Lysander,  having  finished 
the  war  by  the  reduction  of  Samos,  returned  to  Sparta  in  a  magni- 
ficent triumph,  and,  like  Pausanias  long  before,  disgusted  the 
allies  by  the  insolence  with  which  he  used  his  power  (b.c.  404), 
In  closing  the  narrative  of  this  memorable  year,  a  passing  word  is 
due  to  the  fate  of  Alcibiades.  Condemned  as  a  public  enemy 
under  the  Thirty,  he  fled  from  the  Chersonese  to  the  court  of 
Pharnabazus,  and  was  preparing  to  visit  the  new  king  Artaxerxes 
at  Susa,*  when  his  house  was  one  night  surrounded  and  set  on  fire 
by  a  band  of  armed  assassins,  and,  as  he  rushed  out  sword  in 

*  Artaxerxes  II.,  surnamed  Mnemon  (from  his  good  memory),  succeeded  his  father 
Parius  II.,  in  b.c.  405. 


B.C.  403.]  EESTORATION  OF  THE.DEMOCEACY.  533 

hand,  lie  fell  pierced  with  arrows.  It  is  uncertain  whether  the 
murderers  were  employed  by  Sparta,  or  by  private  enemies,  whom 
he  had  injured  by  his  profligacy. 

Meanwhile,  the  tyranny  of  the  Thirty  had  become  odious  in  the 
eyes  of  all  Greece.  Theramenes,  the  most  able  of  their  number, 
had  been  dragged  to  death  at  the  bidding  of  his  colleague  Critias 
for  his  moderation,  and  the  attempt  was  made  to  silence  all  dis- 
cussion of  the  principles  of  government  by  a  decree  forbidding  the 
teaching  of  "  the  art  of  words,"  that  is,  rhetoric,  philosophy,  and, 
in  one  word,  all  the  learning  of  the  Sophists.*  On  the  other  side, 
the  Corinthians  and  Boeotians  resented  the  arrogance  of  Sparta 
and  Lysander,  and  Athenian  exiles  were  permitted  to  take  refuge 
in  Boeotia.  The  Thebans  even  aided  the  enterprise  of  Thrasybulus, 
who  seized  the  border  fortress  of  Phyle,  in  Mount  Parnes ;  and, 
after  two  successful  skirmishes  with  the  followers  of  the  Thirty 
and  the  Laeedsemonian  garrison,  established  himself  at  Piraeus. 
Here  he  was  again  victorious  over  an  assailing  force  led  by  Critias, 
who  was  killed  in  the  attack.  On  his  death,  the  more  moderate 
faction  deposed  the  Thirty,  and  set  up  a  new  government  of  Ten. 
There  were  now  three  parties  contending  for  the  mastery  of 
Athens :  the  democratic  exiles  under  Thrasybulus  at  Piraeus  ;  the 
Ten  in  the  city ;  and  the  remnant  of  the  Thirty  at  Eleusis.  Both 
the  aristocratic  factions  appealed  to  Sparta,  and  Lysander  re-entered 
Athens,  prepared  to  put  down  opposition  with  a  high  hand,  while 
his  fleet  blockaded  Piraeus.  But  his  policy  was  no  longer  in  the 
ascendant  at  Sparta  ;  and  he  was  superseded  by  the  king  Pausa- 
nias.  Having  vindicated  the  honour  of  the  Spartan  arms  by  a 
victory  over  Thrasybulus,  Pausanias  granted  a  truce  for  negotia- 
tion at  Sparta,  which  resulted  in  a  treaty  of  peace  between  the  two 
states,  the  withdrawal  of  the  Lacedaemonian  garrison  from  Athens, 
the  restoration  of  the  democratic  constitution,  and  a  general 
amnesty.  The  laws  of  Solon  were  revised  and  re-enacted,  a  pro- 
ceeding connected  with  a  curious  fact  in  literary  history.  The  old 
Attic  alphabet,  of  sixteen  or  eighteen  letters,  introduced  from 
Phoenicia,  had  till  now  been  kept  in  all  public  documents,  though 
superseded  in  common  usage  by  the  new  Ionic  alphabet  of  twenty- 
four  letters.  The  latter  tyas  now  for  the  first  time  eniployed  in  the 
inscription  of  the  laws  on  the  walls  of  the  Painted  Porch,     The 

*  Socrates,  whom  Critias  had  once  followed,  was  especially  dreaded  for  his  sharp 
criticism  of  the  acts  of  the  Thirty,  under  the  guise  of  his  wonted  familiar  illustrations. 
Xenophon  gives  an  amusing  account  of  the  interview  in  which  Critias  forbade  hun  to 
teach  any  longer  {ilemorabilia,  bk.  i.  c.  ii.). 


534  EIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.      [Chap.  XIV. 

acts  of  the  Thirty  were  annulled,  and  the  year  of  their  government 
was  stigmatized  in  the  public  annals  as  "the  year  of  anarchy  ;  "  * 
while  tlie  year  of  the  resoration  of  the  republic  became  memorable 
by  the  name  of  its  archon,  Euclides  (b.c.  403). 

Before  proceeding  to  the  narrative  of  the  period  from  the  Pelo- 
ponnesian  War  to  the  Macedonian  ascendancy,  we  have  to  notice 
two  important  episodes  which  mark  the  transition  from  the  fifth 
to  the  fourth  century  b.c, — the  death  of  Socrates,  and  the  expedi- 
tion of  the  younger  Cyrus.  The  former  event  did  not  take  place 
till  the  second  year  of  the  new  century ;  but  it  may  be  regarded  as 
a  fruit  of  the  animosities  that  prevailed  during  the  war.  We  need 
not  repeat  at  length  the  oft-told  story  of  the  life  and  teaching  of 
Socrates, — his  ungainly  person,  his  eccentric  and  ascetic  mode  of 
life,  always  in  the  open  view  of  the  citizens,  discoursing  in  the 
market-place,  the  porticoes,  and  the  streets,  with  all  who  chose, — 
fascinating  them  with  the  charm  of  his  voice,  the  point  of  his 
homely  illustrations,  and  the  triumphant  skill  of  his  dialectics,  by 
which  an  opponent  was  committed,  early  in  the  argument,  to  a 
position  which  he  was  then  led  on  step  by  step,  through  a  series 
of  artful  interrogations,  to  contradict.  Xor  have  we  space  for  an 
account  of  the  new  philosophy,  of  which  he  was  tlie  great  master, 
the  speculative  side  of  which  is  developed  in  the  brilliant  dialogues 
of  Plato,  while  its  moral  aspects  are  exhibited  in  the  works  of 
Xenophon.  There  is,  in  fact,  no  positive  system  of  i:>hilosophy 
which  can  be  fairly  represented  by  the  name  of  Socrates.  His 
special  work  was  to  break  down  prejudicies,  to  expose  fallacies,  to 
unveil  the  mischievous  tendencies  of  false  principles  and  false 
methods  of  enquiry,  to  assert  the  existence  of  great  necessary 
truths — of  the  good,  the  true,  the  beautiful — ^in  the  consciousness 
of  mankind  ;  leaving  the  positive  results  of  such  teaching  to  those 
who  came  after  him.  His  own  explanation  of  the  reason  why  the 
Delphic  oracle  pronounced  him  the  wisest  of  mankind — because  he 
alone  knew  that  he  knew  nothing — was  no  affected  paradox,  but  tke 
very  sum  of  all  his  philosophy — that  the  mind  must  be  emptied  of 
all  conceit  of  its  own  knowledge,  before  it  can  receive  any  truth 
pure  and  absolute — and  to  convince  men  of  this  in  their  own  case 
was  the  great  aim  of  his  dialectic  method.  It  was  in  the  incul- 
cation of  the  plain  duties  of  morality  that  the  positive  side  of  his 
teaching  was  exhibited  most  clearly ;  and  so,  though  Xenophon's 

*  The  exact  period  of  their  rule  was  eight  months  ;  from  the  summer  of  b.c.  404  to 
the  spring  of  B.C.  403. 


B.C.  399.]  DEATH  OF  SOCRATES.  535 

picture  of  Socrates  is  doubtless  very  incomplete,  it  furnishes,  as 
far  as  it  goes,  an  exacter  portrait  than  that  of  Plato. 

Through  a  long  and  irreproachable  public  life,  in  which  he 
never  neglected  his  duties  as  a  citizen,*  the  admiration  which 
Socrates  earned  was  clouded  by  many  enmities.  At  first,  he  was 
confounded  with  the  Sophists  ;  and  his  personal  peculiarities 
marked  him  as  the  natural  butt  for  the  indignant  satire  which  was 
levelled  at  them  by  Aristophanes  in  the  Clouds  (b.c.  423).  His 
real  life  for  twenty-four  years  must  surely  have  dispelled  any 
impression  made  by  so  gross  a  caricature ;  but  meanwhile  stronger 
grounds  of  oifence  arose  against  him.  The  enmity  of  the  poli- 
ticians, oratoi*s,  poets,  and  other  leading  men,  whose  pretensions 
he  had  exposed  by  his  merciless  dialectics,  was  added  to  the  envy 
which  always  dogs  the  steps  of  superior  virtue.  But  what  told 
most  against  him  was  the  suspicion  of  disaffection  to  the  popular 
beliefs  as  to  religion  and  politics.  The  former  charge  resolved 
itself  into  a  vague  distrust  of  his  philosophic  views  ;  the  latter 
was  supported  by  the  ridicule  which  he  did  not  hesitate  to  pour 
on  certain  points  of  the  democratic  constitution,  such  as  the 
election  of  the  magistrates  by  lot ;  nor  can  it  be  denied  that  the 
tendency  of  his  teaching  was  against  government  by  the  many. 
Added  to  this  was  the  fact,  skilfully  used  by  his  accuser,  that  the 
greatest  internal  enemies  of  the  state,  Critias  and  Alcibiades,  had 
been  his  disciples.  He  was  arraigned  by  Meletus,  Anytus,  and 
Lycon,  on  the  double  charge  of  not  believing  in  the  gods  of  the 
city,  but  introducing  other  new  deities,  and  of  corrupting  the 
youth  by  his  teaching.  The  issue  is  well  known  : — his  firm  and 
uncompromising  defence,  his  condemnation  by  a  bare  majority  of 
the  dicasts,  his  rejection  of  the  opportunity  to  escape  because  it 
would  be  disobedience  to  the  law,  and  his  calm  death,  by  means 
of  the  cup  of  hemlock,  surrounded  by  the  friends  whom  he  de- 
lighted, in  that  last  hour,  by  his  discourse  on  the  Immortality  of 
the  Soul.f     He  died  at  the  age  of  YO,  in  b.c.  399. 

Of  the  two  disciples,  to  whom  we  owe  our  knowledge  of  Socrates, 
Xenophon  was  at  this  time  absent  from  Athens  on  the  expedition 


*  Examples  of  distinguished  merit  in  the  performance  of  those  duties  are  furnished 
by  his  conduct  at  Potidsea  and  Delium,  and  his  resistance  to  the  illegal  vote  for  the  death 
of  the  generals  after  the  battle  of  Arginusse. 

f  Plato's  celebrated  dialogue,  the  Phcedo,  which  contains  this  discourse,  with  a  most 
touching  account  of  the  master's  death,  doubtless  conveys  his  own  views  quite  as  much 
as  those  of  Socrates,  The  main  argument  resolves  itself  into  our  consciousness  of  the 
possession  of  a  life  which  is  indestructible. 


536  RIVALRY  OF  TIIE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.      [Chap.  XIV. 

whicli  lias  immortalized  him  as  a  soldier  and  a  writer.  The 
attempt  of  the  younger  Cyrus  to  wrest  the  crown  of  Persia 
from  his  brother  Artaxerxes,  by  the  aid  of  a  body  of  Greek 
mercenaries,  chiefly  from  the  Dorian  states,  and  the  masterly 
retreat  of  the  Ten  Thousand  Greeks,  under  Xenophon,  from  the 
neighbourhood  of  Babylon,  along  the  upper  Tigris,  and  through 
the  mountains  of  Kurdistan  and  Armenia  to  the  Greek  settle- 
ments on  the  Euxine, — forms  a  military  study  of  the  deepest 
interest.  Its  chief  importance  in  general  history  arises  from  its 
having  prepared  the  way  for  the  conquests  of  Alexander,  by  prov- 
ing how  vulnerable  was  the  Persian  empire  at  its  very  heart  (b.c. 
401 — 400).  It  remains  to  give  a  brief  sketch  of  the  events  that 
filled  up  the  interval. 

The  period  of  forty  years,  from  the  expedition  of  the  younger 
Cyrus,  to  the  accession  of  Philip  in  Macedonia,  is  full  of  incidents, 
which  must  be  mastered  by  the  student  of  Greek  history,  but  only 
a  few  of  which  stand  out  prominently  in  the  history  of  the  world. 
It  corresponds  almost  exactly  to  the  long  reign  of  the  Spartan 
Agesilaus,  who  divides  with  Epaminondas  the  distinction  due  to 
the  leading  men  of  the  whole  period.  It  may  be  divided  into  the 
supremacies  of  Sparta  and  of  Thebes.  The  former  lasted  from 
the  fall  of  Athens,  in  b.c.  404,  to  the  battle  of  Leuctra,  in  b.c.  371 ; 
but  during  the  whole  period,  except  the  first  nine  years,  the 
supremacy  of  Sparta  was  disputed  by  nearly  all  the  other  leading 
states,  and  Athens  regained  for  some  time  the  mastery  of  the 
seas.  The  remaining  ten  years  are  occupied  by  the  brief  but 
brilliant  supremacy  of  Thebes,  under  Epaminondas,  ending  with 
the  battle  of  Mantinea  (b.c.  362),  and  the  pacification  of  Greece 
(b.c.  361). 

During  the  first  years  after  the  fall  of  Athens,  the  power  of 
Sparta  was  strengthened  by  the  conquest  of  Elis  by  king  Agis 
(b.c.  401 — 399).  On  this  king's  death,  his  elder  son  Leotychides 
was  set  aside,  on  a  suspicion  of  illegitimacy,  through  the  influence 
of  Lysander,  who  was  endeavouring  to  pave  the  way  for  his  own 
accession  to  the  crown.  But  in  the  pei-son  of  Agesilaus,  the 
younger  son  of  Agis,  by  his  second  wife,  he  raised  up  an  insuper- 
able obstacle  to  liis  ambitious  projects  (b.c.  398).  The  noAv  king, 
who  had  already  reached  his  fortieth  year,  has  been  held  forth  by 
his  friend  Xenophon  as  the  model  of  every  excellence.  Though 
this  estimate  is  exaggerated,  he  was  a  skilful  general,  a  prudent 
statesman,  an  ardent  patriot,  and  distinguished  for  all  Spartan 
virtues.     The  air  almost  of  deformity,  due  to  the  shortness  of 


B.C.  399.]  SPARTAN  WAR  m  ASIA.  537 

his  stature,  combined  witli  lameness  of  one  leg,  was  counter- 
balanced by  liis  pleasing  countenance  and  affable  manner.  He 
was  content  with  the  reality  of  power,  which  he  held  all  the 
more  firmly  for  the  respect  he  always  paid  to  the  senators  and 
epliors.  Among  his  qualities  as  a  soldier,  none  was  more  remark- 
able than  his  constancy  under  defeat. 

While  the  fall  of  the  Athenian  empire  had  imposed  on  Sparta 
the  duty  of  protecting  the  Ionian  colonies,  the  part  taken  by  her 
citizens  in  the  expedition  of  Cyrus  drew  upon  her  the  enmity  of 
Persia.  A  war  ensued  in  Asia  between  the  satraps,  Pharnabazus 
and  Tissaphernes,  against  the  Spartans,  first  under  Thimbron  and 
then  under  Dercyllidas  (b.c.  399).  The  success  of  the  latter 
general  led  to  an  armistice  (b.c.  397),  during  which  Pharnabazus, 
among  other  vast  preparations,  raised  a  powerful  fleet,  and  placed 
it  under  the  command  of  the  Athenian  Conon,  who  had  resided  at 
Salamis  since  the  battle  of  ^gospotami.  Agesilaus  was  now 
induced  by  Lysander  to  proceed  to  Asia  in  person ;  and  he  went 
out  in  the  character  of  successor  to  his  ancestor  Agamemnon, 
since  whom  no  Grecian  king  had  passed  over  into  Asia.  In 
attempting  to  inaugurate  his  expedition  by  sacrifices  at  Aulis,  he 
provoked  the  religious  jealousy  of  the  Thebans,  who  incurred  his 
lasting  enmity  by  driving  him  away. 

Arriving  at  Ephesus  in  B.C.  396,  Agesilaus  soon  checked  the 
arrogance  of  Lysander,  who  was  glad  to  depart  on  a  separate 
service  to  the  Hellespont.  Repulsed  in  a  sudden  attack  on  Das- 
cylium,  inPhrygia,  the  capital  of  Pharnabazus,  Agesilaus  returned 
to  winter  at  Ephesus,  and  took  the  field  in  great  force  the  next 
spring  against  Tissaphernes,  whom  he  defeated,  ravaging  the 
country  up  to  the  gates  of  Sardis  (b.c.  395).  Tissaphernes  being 
soon  after  murdered  by  the  contrivance  of  the  queen-mother  Pary- 
satis,  his  successor  concluded  an  armistice  with  Agesilaus,  who 
then  marched  into  Phrygia.  Having  received  a  commission  from 
Sparta,  making  him  general-in-chief  by  sea  as  well  as  land,  he 
again  spent  the  winter  at  Ephesus  in  vast  preparations.  Xeno- 
phon  gives  a  very  picturesque  account  of  an  interview  between 
Agesilaus  and  Pharnabazus  during  this  winter.  On  the  opening 
of  spring,  he  had  just  taken  the  field  for  a  new  campaign,  when 
his  career  in  Asia  was  cut  short  by  his  recall  home  to  meet  a 
combined  attack  on  Sparta  by  her  chief  allies  (b.c.  394). 

The  refusal  of  Corinth,  Thebes,  and  Athens  to  join  Agesilaus  in 
his  expedition  to  Asia  was  a  proof  of  the  discontent  of  the  allies 
towards  Sparta.     The  new  satrap  of  Ionia  had  the  skill  to  turn 


688  RIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.       [Chap.  X^^^ 

this  feeling  to  account ;  and  his  envoy,  a  Rhodian  named  Tirao- 
crates,  succeeded  in  stirring  up  a  war  against  Sparta  (b.c.  395). 
A  quarrel  between  tlie  Pliocians  and  Opuntian  Locrians,  in  which 
the  Thebans  aided  the  former,  gave  the  signal  for  hostilities. 
The  Lacedaemonians,  who  on  their  part  bore  a  most  liostile  feeling 
towards  the  Thebans,  listened  to  tlie  appeal  of  the  Pliocians,  and 
Lysander  invaded  Poeotia  with  a  force  designed  to  form  the 
advance  guard  of  a  great  army  under  the  king  Pausanias.  The 
Thebans  now  invoked  the  aid  of  the  Athenians,  who  accepted  the 
alliance  of  their  ancient  enemy.  But  before  the  full  forces  could 
be  mustered  on  either  side,  Lysander  fell  in  a  battle  under  the 
walls  of  ITaliartus ;  and,  when  Pausanias  arrived,  he  was  content 
to  gain  permission  to  bury  Lysander  and  liis  fallen  comrades  by 
consenting  to  retire  from  Bceotia. 

The  victory  of  Ilaliartus  was  the  signal  for  a  formal  alliance 
against  Sparta,  in  which  Thebes,  Athens,  Corinth,  and  Argos 
were  joined  by  other  powerful  states  on  both  sides  of  the  continent, 
the  Ozolian  Locrians,  Eubceans,  and  Chalcidians  of  Thrace,  on  the 
east,  the  Acarnanians,  Ambraciots,  and  Leucadians  on  the  west. 
The  war  that  ensued  is  known  in  history  as  the  Corinthian  War^ 
Corinth  having  been  chosen  by  the  allies  as  their  place  of  meeting. 
The  Lacedicmonians  anticipated  the  attack  of  the  allies  by  an 
advance  to  the  Isthmus,  and  gained  a  decisive  victory  under  the 
walls  of  Corinth  (about  July  394).  Meanwhile  Agesilaus  was 
marching  back  to  Greece  through  Thrace  and  Macedonia,  fol- 
lowed by  several  veterans  of  the  Ten  Thousand  and  other  chosen 
troops.  So  bitter  were  his  feelings  at  having  to  renounce  his 
plans  in  Asia,  that  the  news  of  the  victory  of  Corinth,  which 
greeted  him  at  Amphipolis,  caused  him  no  exultation.  He  could 
only  lament  that  so  many  of  the  Greeks,  whose  union  might 
have  easily  freed  their  brethren  in  Asia,  had  fallen  in  arms 
against  each  other.  After  some  skirmishes  with  the  Thessalian 
cavalry,  he  had  passed  the  strait  of  Thermopylae,  when  an  eclipse 
of  the  sun  warned  him  of  some  great  disaster  (b.c.  394,  August 
14),  and  the  portent  was  soon  explained  by  the  news  of  the 
annihilation  of  the  fleet  he  had  left  behind  him  on  the  coast  of 
Asia,  an  event  to  be  related  presently.  Having  announced  it  to 
his  army  as  a  great  victory,  and  oflered  suitable  sacrifices,  he 
hastened  to  meet  the  confederates,  who  awaited  him  on  the  plain 
of  Coronea  in  Boeotia.*     He  had  been  joined  by  the  Orchomenians, 

*  This  battle-field  had  already  been  signalized  by  the  victory  of  the  Boeotians 
over  the  Athenians,  in  b.c.  447.     (See  p.  463.) 


B.C.  394.]  BATTLE  OF  COEONEA.  539 

who  had  taken,  the  side  of  Sparta  through  jealousy  of  Thebes,  and 
who  now  formed  the  left  wing  of  Agesilaus.  But  thej  only 
proved  a  source  of  weakness ;  for  at  the  first  impetuous  shock  of 
the  Thebans,  who  were  opposed  to  them  on  the  right  of  the  allies, 
they  broke  their  ranks  and  fled.  Instead  of  assailing  the  flank  of 
the  enemy's  severed  line,  the  Thebans  pursued  the  defeated  wing 
till  they  were  separated  from  the  rest  of  the  allies,  who,  in  their 
turn,  had  given  way  before  Agesilaus.  They  drew  up  in  a  new 
line  of  battle  upon  Mount  Helicon,  and  endeavoured  to  cut  their 
way  through  tlie  army  of  Agesilaus.  The  close  combat  that 
ensued  was  not  only  the  fiercest  in  which  Greek  ever  met  Greek, 
but  a  hand  to  hand  conflict  such  as  seldom  occurs  in  the  history  of 
war.  In  the  front  ranks,  the  broken  spears  and  shields  were 
replaced  by  daggers,  which  were  plied  amidst  a  silence  only  broken 
by  deep  tones  of  rage.  Agesilaus  himself  was  thrown  down,  and 
hardly  dragged  from  under  the  feet  of  the  combatants  by  his 
chosen  body-guard  of  fifty.  The  Thebans  at  last  forced  their  way 
through  to  their  comrades  with  great  loss,  leaving  in  the  hands 
of  Agesilaus  a  dear  bought  and  indecisive  victory  (b.c.  394). 

Among  the  circumstances  of  this  memorable  battle  must  be 
reckoned  the  part  taken  in  it  by  Xenophon.  After  his  brilliant 
success  in  leading  back  the  Ten  Thousand  Greeks  had  been  crowned 
by  their  incorporation  with  the  army  of  Thimbron,  his  movements 
are  somewhat  uncertain.  Having  deposited  his  share  of  the  booty 
in  the  temple  of  Artemis  at  Ephesus,  he  seems  to  have  returned  to 
Athens  shortly  after  the  death  of  Socrates.*  His  deep  indignation 
at  the  event  was  not  likely  to  be  diminished  by  the  vehement 
revival  of  democratic  and  anti-Laconian  feeling,  and  he  appears 
soon  to  have  returned  to  the  more  congenial  society  of  the  Lace- 
daemonian army  in  Asia.  He  served  as  commander  of  the  remnant 
of  the  Ten  Thousand  under  Dercyllidas,  and  again  under  Agesi- 
laus, for  whom  he  conceived  the  admiration  that  is  expressed  so 
warmly  in  his  works.  To  that  friendship  he  sacrificed  his  loyalty 
to  his  country.  He  accompanied  Agesilaus  to  Greece  and  fought 
against  Athens  at  Coronea.    Banished  most  justly  for  this  offence,t 

*  The  opening  words  of  the  Memorabilia  are  those  of  a  person  regarding  the  event 
from  a  distance : — "  /  often  wondered  on  what  grounds  the  accusers  of  Socrates  per- 
suaded the  Athenians  that  he  deserved  death." 

\  See  the  argument  of  Mr.  Grote  (History  of  Greece,  vol.  viii.,  p.  242),  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  view  which  places  the  banishment  of  Xenophon  at  an  earlier  date.  On 
the  whole  subject  of  Xenophon's  character  and  his  relations  to  his  country,  there 
are  some  admirable  essays  by  Niebuhr  and  Bishop  Thirlwall,  in  the  Philological 
Museum. 


540  RIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.      [Chap.  XIV. 

Xenoplion  identified  liiniself  completely  ^vitll  the  Spartans,  He 
retired  to  an  estate  which  he  purchased  at  Scillus,  near  Olympia, 
in  Elis ;  and  there  divided  his  time  between  huntinfr,  entertaining 
his  friends,  and  the  composition  of  his  works.  He  was  driven 
from  this  retreat  by  the  Eleans  after  a  residence  of  about  twenty 
years  ;  and  he  is  said  to  have  retired  to  Corinth.  His  sentence  of 
banishment  was  repealed  on  the  motion  of  Eubulus ;  but  he  seems 
never  to  have  returned  to  Athens. 

In  Asia,  meanwhile,  utter  ruin  had  befallen  the  fleet  of  Sparta, 
and  her  short-lived  empire  of  the  sea  had  again  been  lost.  During 
the  second  campaign  of  Agesilaus,  Conon,  placed  by  Phamabazus 
in  command  of  the  combined  Athenian  and  Persian  fleets,  had 
been  blockaded  at  Caunus  in  Lycia  by  the  Lacedflemonian  fleet  of 
120  sail,  under  Pharax.  Conon  had  only  forty  ships ;  but  the 
arrival  of  forty  more  not  only  broke  up  the  blockade,  but  enabled 
him  to  take  possession  of  llhodes,  which  revolted  from  the  Lace- 
daemonians ;  a  proof  that  the  maritime  allies  soon  became  er 
impatient  of  the  Spartan  supremacy  as  they  had  formerly  been  of 
the  Athenian.  During  the  winter,  Conon  went  to  the  court  of 
Artaxerxes  at  Babylon,  and  returned  with  a  large  sum  of  money, 
which  enabled  him  and  Pharnabazus  to  fit  out  a  combined  Athe- 
nian and  Phoenician  fleet  superior  to  that  of  the  Laeedsemonians. 
The  latter,  reinforced  by  the  exertions  of  Agesilaus,  and  placed 
under  the  command  of  his  brother-in-law,  Pisander,  was  stationed 
in  Cnidus,  in  Caria.  Thither  Conon  proceeded,  and  oftered  battle, 
which  Pisander  had  not  the  prudence  to  decline.  He  was  deserted 
by  his  Asiatic  allies,  and  utterly  defeated,  with  the  loss  of  more 
than  half  his  fleet,  and  of  his  own  life.  The  battle  of  Cnidus  was 
fought  early  in  August,  b.c.  394,  shortly  after  that  of  Corinth, 
and  before  that  of  Corouea.  The  combined  fleet,  under  Phama- 
bazus and  Conon,  followed  up  their  victory  by  the  reduction  of  the 
islands  and  the  cities  on  the  Hellespont;  but  Abydus  and  the 
Thracian  Chersonese  were  preserved  to  Sparta  by  the  energy  of 
Dercyllidas.  In  the  following  spring  (b.c.  393)  they  crossed  the 
yEgtiean,  ravaged  the  coasts  of  Laconia,  placed  an  Athenian  garri- 
son in  the  island  of  Cythera,  and  finally  took  up  their  station  off 
the  Isthmus,  to  co-operate  with  the  allies,  whose  head-quartei-s 
were  at  Corinth.  A  century  had  almost  elapsed  since  the  victory 
of  Salamis,  when  the  incredible  spectacle  was  seen  of  a  Persian 
satrap  and  an  Athenian  commander  conducting  their  united 
navies  past  the  shores  of  the  island ;  and  in  that  sight  the  Greeks 
beheld  the  natural  fruit  of  their  long  dissensions. 


B.C.  393.]  C0I^0:N'  REBUILDS  THE  LONG  WALLS  541 

But,  instead  of  yielding  to  patriotic  slianie,  the  Athenians  were 
content  to  reap  substantial  advantage  from  their  strange  alliance. 
Pharnabazus,  in  his  anger  against  the  Spartans  for  their  victories 
in  Asia,  not  only  granted  Canon  permission  to  rebuild  the  fortifi- 
cations of  Pirteus  and  the  Long  Walls,  but  left  the  fleet  at  his  dis- 
posal, and  supplied  him  with  money  for  the  work.  Stranger  than 
all,  the  new  allies  of  Athens,  and  among  them  their  inveterate  foes 
the  Thebans,  were  seen  heartily  co-operating  in  the  restoration  of 
those  bulwarks  the  destruction  of  which  they  had  celebrated  eleven 
years  before  with  music  and  dancing.  The  Spartans,  once  more 
confined  to  the  land  by  the  loss  of  their  fleet,  and  shut  up  within 
the  Isthmus  by  the  lines  of  Corinth,  were  helpless  to  resist  the  work. 
Its  completion  was  celebrated,  together  with  the  victory  of  Cnidus, 
by  a  splendid  festival,  at  which  Conon  was  hailed  as  a  second 
Themistocles.  His  statue  was  set  up  by  the  Athenians,  and  a 
decree  was  engraved  on  a  pillar,  celebrating  his  services  to  his 
country.  Kor  was  it  possible  to  exaggerate  the  importance  of  the 
event.  It  was  not  indeed  the  restoration  of  Athens  to  her  old 
empire,  which  would  have  been  a  mockery  of  its  former  self,  if 
raised  up  under  the  protection  of  Persia ;  and  the  Athenian  empire 
was  one  of  those  great  political  structures  which  are  not  repeated 
when  once  destroyed.  But  it  restored  Athens  once  more,  in  her 
own  strength,  to  that  independent  position  which  she  had  lately 
held  only  by  precarious  alliances  ;  and  while  protecting  her,  as  of 
old,  from  her  enemies  on  shore,  it  held  out  to  her  the  prospect  of 
an  ascendancy  over  the  maritime  states,  which  might  at  least  be  the 
reflection  of  her  former  glory.  "  It  re-animated  her,  if  not  into 
the  Athens  of  Pericles,  at  least  into  that  of  Isocrates  and  Demo- 
sthenes; it  imparted  to  her  a  second  fill  of  strength,  dignity, 
and  commercial  importance,  during  the  half  century  destined  to 
elapse  before  she  was  finally  overwhelmed  by  the  superior  military 
force  of  Macedon."  *  Nor  was  Conon  slow  in  taking  advantage 
of  her  new  position.  He  led  forth  the  Athenian  navy  among 
the  islands,  to  reunite  them  with  Athens  in  a  maritime  confede- 
racy ;  and  he  made  an  effort,  in  conjunction  with  Evagoras,  the 
ruler  of  Salamis,  in  Cyprus,  to  gain  over  Dionysius,  the  celebrated 
tyrant  of  Syracuse ;  but  this  overture  was  unsuccessful.  He  also 
organized  a  mercenary  force  for  the  defence  of  Corinth,  a  measure 
now  for  the  first  time  adopted  in  the  wars  of  the  Greek  states. 

In  the  restoration  of  Athens  to  so  much  of  her  former  power,  it 
is  impossible  not  to  see  one  of  the  most  striking  examples  of  a 

*  Grote,  History  of  Greece^  vol.  viii.,  p.  450. 


642  RIVALRY  OF  THE   GREEK  REPUBLICS.     [Chap.  XIV. 

lesson  that  history  is  continually  teaching,  but  which  the  passions 
of  succeeding  generations  as  constantly  prevent  their  learning ; — 
the  lesson,  liow  often  the  longest  and  most  bloody  wars  ])rove 
altogether  fruitless  for  their  object,  however  fruitful  in  misery, 
exhaustion,  and  ill-will.  Comparing  the  condition  of  the  state 
with  what  it  was  before  all  the  sacrifices  of  the  Peloponnesian 
War,  her  enemies  had  nothing  to  show  for  all  those  sacrifices, 
unless  it  were  the  miserable  consolation  that,  though  they  had 
failed  to  destroy  her,  she  no  longer  possessed  the  power  to  save 
them,  with  herself,  from  the  conmion  dangers  that  Avere  approach- 
ing. Meanwhile  Sparta  seemed  to  be  struggling  for  her  very 
existence  against  the  states,  now  allied  with  Athens,  which  had 
been  the  keenest  in  goading  her  on  to  the  former  war. 

Corinth  was  now  again  the  critical  point  of  the  contest.  The 
Lacedfcmonians  were  established  at  Sicyon,  and  the  allies  were 
defending  the  Isthmus,  so  as  to  keep  them  pent  up  within  Pelo- 
ponnesus. The  natural  line  of  defence  at  Corinth  is  formed  by 
the  Onean  mountains,  which  leave  passes  between  their  extremities 
and  the  two  seas,  while  a  third  cuts  through  the  ridge  beside 
Corinth  itself.  The  last  pass,  and  that  on  the  Saronic  Gulf,  were 
held  by  the  allies,  while  the  pass  along  the  shore  of  the  Corinthian 
Gulf  was  blocked  up  by  the  Long  Walls  connecting  Corinth  with  its 
port  Lechceura.  Factions  broke  out  in  the  city ;  and,  while  the 
democratic  government  called  in  the  Argives  to  overawe  the 
wealthy  citizens,  who  were  disaffected  at  seeing  their  lands  ravaged, 
the  latter  admitted  the  Lacedaemonians  within  the  Long  Walls, 
where  a  battle  w^as  fought,  wdiich  ended  in  the  defeat  of  the 
Argives  and  the  Corinthians  (b.c.  392).  The  way  was  now  laid 
open  into  Attica  and  Boeotia,  and  great  alarm  was  felt  at  Athens 
and  Thebes.  The  Athenians  hastened  to  repair  the  Long  Walls 
of  Corinth,  but  in  the  following  summer  Agesilaus  took  Lechaeum, 
and  pulled  down  the  long  walls  entirely. 

The  renewed  danger  induced  both  Thebes  and  Athens  to  send 
envoys  to  Sparta  to  treat  of  peace.  Those  of  the  former  state 
were  rudely  repulsed,  for  Agesilaus  had  not  forgiven  the  insult 
put  upon  him  at  Aulis.  The  envoys  of  Athens  obtained  very 
favourable  terms,  wdiich  the  people  however  rejected,  chiefly 
through  the  opposition  of  Argos  and  Corinth,  It  was  on  this 
occasion  that  the  orator  Andocides,  who  has  already  been  mentioned 
in  connection  with  Alcibiades,  made  his  speech,  which  is  still 
extant,  in  favour  of  the  Peace.  Agesilaus,  proceeding  from  his 
head-quarters  at   Lechoeum,  took  Piraeum,  the  chief  stronghold 


B.C.  391.]  VICTORY  OF  IPHICRATES.  543 

remaining  to  the  Corinthians  on  the  Jsthmus,  and  placed  Corinth 
itself  under  a  close  blockade. 

It  was  now  that  the  new  element  introduced  by  Conon  into  Greek 
warfare  began  to  produce  its  results.  The  mercenaries  had  been 
trained  by  the  Athenian  Iphicrates  as  light  troops,  clad  in  a  linen 
breastplate  in  place  of  the  cumbrous  panoply  of  the  hoplites,  and 
armed  with  swords  and  javelins  longer  than  those  of  the  peltasts. 
At  the  head  of  this  band,  Iphicrates  seized  an  opportunity  to  sally 
out  from  Corinth  upon  a  procession  escorted  by  a  division  {inorci) 
of  600  Spartan  hoplites,  a  force  wont  to  despise  many  times  their 
number  of  light-armed  troops,  while  those  of  Iphicrates  were  one- 
third  less  numerous.  Yet  they  were  completely  baffled  by  the 
agile  movements  of  the  enemy,  and  on  the  approach  of  a  body  of 
Athenian  hoplites,  they  fled  to  Lechseum,  pursued  by  the  soldiers 
of  Iphicrates,  and  nearly  the  whole  mora  was  cut  to  pieces.  Such 
a  defeat  was  a  disgrace  to  the  Spartan  arms  and  a  shock  to 
Spartan  sentiment,  such  as  had  not  been  suffered  since  the  cap- 
ture of  Sphacteria.  Agesilaus  received  the  news  at  the  very 
moment  when  he  had  returned  an  insulting  answer  to  the  envoys 
whom  the  Thebans,  alarmed  at  the  state  of  Corinth,  had  sent  to 
treat  for  peace.  He  marched  off  instantly  to  dispute  with  the 
victors  the  bodies  of  the  slain  ;  but  news  met  him  that  Iphicrates 
had  erected  his  trophy  and  retired.  He  then  advanced  to  Corinth ; 
but  all  his  taunts  failed  to  draw  forth  the  Corinthians  to  battle  ; 
and  he  marched  back  to  Sparta  almost  by  stealth,  fearing  to  ex- 
pose his  humiliated  army  to  the  scorn  of  their  own  allies.  Strik- 
ingly contrasted  with  this  covert  retreat,  and  with  the  shame  and 
anger  displayed  by  the  Lacedaemonians  in  general,  was  the  bear- 
ing of  the  sons  and  fathers  and  brothers  of  the  slain,  who  went 
about  with  bright  and  joyful  air,  like  men  who  had  been  victorous 
in  the  games.  For  such  was  the  custom  at  Sparta,  to  exult  for 
those  who  were  bravely  slain,  and  only  to  mourn  over  the  captives 
and  the  disgraced.  Iphicrates  remained  master  of  the  Isthmus, 
and  retook  the  captured  posts.  Having  fallen  into  odium  at 
Corinth,  owing,  it  is  said,  to  his  domineering  temper  and  some 
suspicion  of  designs  on  the  independence  of  the  state,  he  was 
recalled,  and  succeeded  by  Chabrias.  The  Spartans  appear  to 
have  made  no  further  attempt  on  Corinth ;  but  Agesilaus  con- 
quered Acarnania ;  and  Agesipolis,  his  colleague  in  the  kingdom, 
invaded  the  Argive  territory,  disregarding  alike  the  common  pre- 
text, that  the  people  were  engaged  in  a  religious  festival,  and  the 
omen  of  an  earthquake.    It  was  not  till  a  flash  of  lightning  killed 


544  RIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.      [Chap.  XIV. 

several  men  in  his  camp,  tluit  this  daring  contemner  of  Greek 
suiJcrstitions  retired  from  tlie  country.  Xenophon  does  not  enable 
us  to  fix  with  certainty  tlie  dates  of  the  few  events  wliich  occurred 
on  the  mainland  between  tlie  victory  of  Iphicrates  and  the  peace, 
the  causes  of  which  we  have  now  to  relate. 

Tlie  successes  of  Conon  had  filled  Sparta  with  alarm  at 
the  threatened  restoration  of  the  maritime  empire  of  Athens. 
For  this  danger  there  seemed  but  one  remedy  left, — the  inter- 
vention of  the  Persian  king.  It  was  not  enough  that  both  par- 
ties had  sought  the  aid  of  the  arch-enemy  of  their  common 
country  :  he  nmst  now  be  made  the  arbiter  of  its  disputes.  The 
Spartans  well  knew  the  price  of  his  intervention ;  and  they  re- 
solved to  surrender  the  liberties  of  their  Asiatic  brethren.  With 
such  offers,  Antalcidas,  a  Spartan  as  clever  and  unscrupulous  as 
Lysander,  was  sent  to  Tiribazus,  the  new  satrap  of  Ionia  (b.c. 
391).  As  to  the  internal  affairs  of  Greece,  it  was  proposed  to  adopt 
the  principle  of  "  autonomy,^''  that  is,  that  every  city,  continental 
or  insular,  great  or  small,  should  be  independent  and  self-governed. 
Thus  there  would  be  no  more  great  confederacies,  like  those  which 
had  been  led  by  Sparta  and  Athens,  and  the  Great  King  would 
have  nothing  to  fear  from  the  combined  hostility  of  Greece.  The 
last  proposal  was  aimed  principally  at  the  maritime  empire  which 
Athens  seemed  now  likely  to  re-establish.  It  cost  Sparta  nothing 
to  renounce  for  herself  a  supremacy  at  sea,  wliich  recent  events 
had  left  no  hope  of  her  re-establishing  ;  and,  isolated  as  she  now 
was  on  the  land,  her  best  chance  of  weakening  her  enemies  was 
by  breaking  up  those  separate  confederacies,  of  which  that  of  the 
Boeotian  states,  under  Thebes,  was  the  most  important.  She  had 
proposed  the  same  principle  to  Athens,  on  the  eve  of  the  Pelo- 
ponnesian  War,  when  its  acceptance  would  have  allowed  her  to 
have  retained  her  own  power,  as  the  head  of  an  alliance  nomi- 
nally voluntary ;  and  subsequent  events  proved  that  she  was  ready 
to  seize  the  first  opportunity  of  resuming  that  position. 

The  allies  had  much — Thebes,  in  particular,  almost  everything 
— to  lose  by  the  admission  of  such  a  principle ;  nor  were  they  pre- 
pared to  sacrifice  the  Asiatic  Greeks.  They  sent  envoys  to  the 
court  of  Tiribazus,  to  oppose  the  designs  of  Antalcidas ;  and, 
among  them,  Conon  went  up  on  the  part  of  Athens.  These 
envoys  made  it  clear  that  the  terms  proposed  by  Antalcidas  would 
be  accepted  by  none  of  the  leading  states,  except  Sparta  herself, 
nor  did  the  resentment  of  the  Pei-sian  court  as  yet  suffer  it  to  unite 
with  Sparta  in  forcing  terms  on  the  rest  of  Greece.     All  that 


B.C.  390.]  IMPRISONMENT  OF  CONON.  545 

Tiribazus  could  do  was  to  promise  to  go  up  to  Susa,  and  try  to 
convince  tlie  king  that  it  was  his  interest  to  accept  tlie  proposals 
of  Antalcidas,  while  he  secretly  furnished  money  for  the  Lacedae- 
monian fleet.  To  this  he  added  an  act  of  perfidy,  as  damaging  to 
Athens  as  it  was  acceptable  to  Sparta,  the  imprisonment  of  Conon, 
in  violation  of  his  sacred  character  as  an  ambassador,  and  of  his 
close  connection  with  Pharnabazus.  The  latter  may,  indeed,  have 
been  a  chief  motive  for  his  seizure,  as  his  influence  with  the  rival 
satrap  would  have  furnished  the  best  means  of  counteracting  the 
philo-Laconian  policy  of  Tiribazus.  The  most  probable  account  of 
Conon's  subsequent  fate  is  tliat  he  escaped,  and  again  took  refuge 
with  Evagoras  in  Cyprus,  and  there  died  of  sickness.  At  all 
events,  his  public  life  was  now  closed,  and  Athens  lost  in  him  the 
best  hope  of  recovering  her  empire. 

The  mission  of  Tiribazus  to  Susa  did  not  prosper ;  and  while  he 
was  detained  at  the  court,  his  place  was  supj>lied  by  Struthas,  a 
Persian,  who  represented  the  full  animosity  of  Artaxerxes  against 
the  Spartans.  The  command  of  the  Lacedaemonians  in  Asia  was 
entrusted  to  Thimbron,  who  had  been  superseded  by  Dercyllidas, 
at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  for  his  rashness  and  incompetence. 
The  same  qualities  now  exposed  him  to  defeat  in  a  disorderly 
battle,  which  was  brought  on  by  the  skilful  manoiuvres  of  Struthas, 
and  in  which  Thimbron  himself  was  slain  (b.c.  390). 

The  maritime  v/ar,  which  had  been  suspended  since  the  battle  of 
Cnidus,  now  broke  out  afi'esh  in  consequence  of  the  desire  of  the 
Lacedaemonians  to  assist  the  oligarchical  exiles,  who  had  been  ex- 
pelled from  Rhodes  when  it  revolted  from  Sparta,*  and  who  were 
now  plotting  with  a  party  in  the  island.  The  seizure  of  Conon  had 
again  deprived  the  Athenians  of  the  mastery  of  the  ^gaean,  and  the 
Spartans  were  able  to  gather  a  fleet  of  twenty-seven  triremes  at 
Cnidus,  under  Teleutias,  the  brother  of  Agesilaus,  and  next  to 
him  the  most  enterprising  of  their  commanders.  He  was  fortu- 
nate enough  to  open  the  campaign  by  the  capture  of  ten  Athenian 
triremes,  which  were  sailing  under  Philocrates  to  aid  Evagoras  of 
Cyprus  against  Persia.  With  his  force  thus  augmented,  Teleutias 
was  enabled  to  establish  the  oligarchical  exiles  on  the  island  of 
Rhodes,  and  to  annoy  the  government  by  a  civil  war ;  but,  when 
he  attempted  to  meet  the  Phodians  in  the  field,  he  was  defeated,  f 

*  See  p.  540. 

\  The  three  ancient  cities  of  the  island,  Lindus,  lalysus,  and  Camirus  had  lately 
coalesced  into  the  new  capital  of  Rhodes,   a  city  destined    to  high  fame  both  in 
ancient  and  medieval  history. 
»   VOL.  I. — 35 


646  RIVALRY  OF  TUE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.     [Chap.  XIV. 

The  Athenians  resolved  on  a  vigorous  effort  to  recover  their 
naval  superiority.  Thrasybulus,  the  restorer  of  the  democracy, 
sailed  with  forty  triremes  to  the  Hellespont  and  Bosporus,  where 
he  completely  re-estabhshed  the  supremacy  of  Athens,  and  reim- 
posed  the  toll  on  passing  ships,  which  the  Lacedaemonians  had 
abolished.  Landing  at  Lesbos,  he  defeated  the  Lacedaemonian 
harmost,  and  he  sailed  down  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  levying 
contributions  for  his  main  object,  the  expedition  to  Rhodes.  The 
last  place  he  visited  was  Aspendus  in  Pamphylia.  On  the  eve  of 
his  departure,  the  Aspendians,  irritated  by  the  excesses  of  his 
soldiers,  surprised  his  camp  in  the  night,  and  slew  him  (b.c.  389). 
He  did  not  leave  behind  him  a  more  patriotic  citizen,  nor  one  who 
had  conferred  greater  services  upon  his  country.  The  movements 
of  Ms  successor  Agyrrhius  are  uncertain ;  and  the  Rhodian  war 
seems  to  have  languished,  while  Teleutias,  being  as  much  in  w^ant 
of  money  as  the  Athenians,  was  compelled  to  waste  his  time  in 
levying  it  by  the  same  means. 

The  Hellespont  now  became  the  chief  seat  of  the  war.  Dercyl- 
lidas,  who  had  commanded  there  for  some  years,  was  succeeded  by 
Anaxibius.  The  new  commander  went  out  with  great  promises, 
which  his  first  successes  seemed  likely  to  redeem ;  but  he  found  his 
match  in  the  Athenian  Iphicrates,  who  laid  an  ambush  for  Anaxi- 
bius, on  his  return  from  an  overland  march,  in  the  passes  of  Mount 
Ida.  The  surprise  was  completely  successful.  With  the  true 
Spartan  spirit,  Anaxibius  declared  that  his  duty  bound  him  to  die 
at  his  post,  but  he  dismissed  his  followers,  who  fled  to  Abydus ; 
while  twelve  other  Spartan  harmosts  remained  and  died  with  him. 
By  this  victory,  the  Athenians  became  again  masters  of  the  Bos- 
porus and  Hellespont,  and  re-established  the  toll  on  ships  passing 
from  the  Euxine.  But  a  new  danger  menaced  them  in  their  own 
seas,  whither  Teleutias  had  now  transferred  his  restless  energy. 

Amidst  the  changes  of  the  last  few  years,  -^gina,  the  ancient 
enemy  of  Athens,  retained  the  independence  restored  to  her  by  the 
issue  of  the  Peloponnesian  War.  Many  of  the  old  inhabitants  had 
been  replaced  in  the  island  by  Lysander ;  and  their  privateers 
vindicated  for  .^gina  its  ancient  title  of  "  the  eyesore  of  the 
Piraeus."  The  Athenians  had  blockaded  the  port  of  xEgina,  and 
planted  a  fort  upon  the  island,  when  Teleutias,  who  was  levying 
contributions  among  the  Cyclades,  hastened  to  its  relief  and  drove 
off  the  blockading  squadron.  Just  at  this  time,  his  term  of  com- 
mand expired,  and  he  departed  for  Sparta  amidst  the  warmest 
demonstrations   of  the  affection  of  the  sailors.     His  successor, 


B.C.  388.]  TELEUTIUS  SUEPEISES  PIRiEUS.  547 

Ilierax,  sailed  back  to  Rliodes,  leaving  Gorgopas  to  command  at 
JEgina,  with  twelve  triremes.  After  some  successful  exploits, 
which  made  him  over-confident,  Gorgopas  was  surprised  and  slain 
by  the  Athenian  Chabrias,  who  had  secretly  landed  a  force  on 
^gina. 

His  successor  found  the  Lacedasmonian  crews  unmanageable 
and  mutinous,  on  account  of  their  pay  being  in  arrear.  Teleutias 
was  sent  out,  as  the  only  commander  likely  to  appease  them. 
Addressing  the  seamen  amidst  their  first  enthusiasm  at  his  return, 
he  told  them  that  he  came  without  money,  but  to  show  them  the 
way  of  procuring  it ;  that  he  would  himself  take  nothing  till  their 
wants  were  supplied  ;  and  that  it  became  brave  men  to  seek  their 
pay  from  their  enemies,  sword  in  hand.  They  responded  with  a 
shout,  bidding  him  to  lead  them  where  he  pleased,  and  they  would 
obey  him.  Without  disclosing  his  object,  which  would  doubtless 
have  alarmed  them  as  impracticable,  he  commanded  them  to  get 
their  suppers  and  come  immediately  on  board,  bringing  with  them 
provisions  for  a  day — a  supply  to  be  reckoned  as  a  generous  advance 
on  their  part. 

The  night  had  just  closed  when  the  little  fleet  of  twelve  triremes 
started  from  ^gina,  and  at  dawn  of  day  Teleutias  led  them  straight 
into  the  harbour  of  Piraeus,  the  mouth  of  which  the  Athenians  had 
always  left  open,  in  the  confidence  of  their  strength.  To  surprise 
it,  "even  at  the  maximum  of  the  Athenian  naval  power,  was  an 
enterprise  possible,  simply  because  every  one  considered  it  to  be 
impossible."  *  Teleutias  found,  as  he  expected,  no  preparations 
for  defence ;  the  triremes,  many  times  his  own  in  number,  were 
unmanned.  These  he  ordered  his  triremes  to  charge  and  disable ; 
the  merchant  ships  were  boarded  and  plundered,  and  their  crews 
carried  off  as  prisoners ;  and  many  of  the  smaller  vessels  were 
towed  away,  with  a  few  triremes.  The  whole  force  of  Athens  flew 
to  arms  at  the  first  alarm ;  but  before  they  could  march  down  to 
Piraeus,  Teleutias  had  sailed  away  with  his  prizes,  adding  to  them 
several  coasting  vessels,  which  mistook  his  for  an  Athenian 
squadron. 

The  success  of  such  an  enterprise,  combined  with  the  constant 
annoyance  experienced  from  ^gina,  must  have  gone  far  to  con- 
vince the  Athenians  that  the  restoration  of  their  maritime  empire 
was  hopeless,  especially  as  their  progress  on  the  Hellespont  now 
received  a  severe  check.  At  the  same  time  the  financial  pressure 
of  the  contest,  coming  upon  them  when  they  were  reduced  to  the 

*  Grote,  History  of  Greece,  vol.  ix.,  p.  523. 


648  RIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.      [Chap.  XIV. 

greatest  poverty  hy  tlic  Peloponiiesian  War,  must  have  disposed 
them  to  accept  the  peace,  which  the  Spartans  were  at  length 
Buccessful  in  persuading  the  king  of  Persia  to  impose.  Shortly 
before  the  fall  of  Gorgopas  at  J^gina,  Antalcidas  had  sailed  from 
that  island  at  the  head  of  a  fleet,  which  he  despatched  to  the 
Hellespont  under  his  secretary  Nicolochus,  while  he  himself  went 
up  to  Susa  with  Tiribazus.  This  time,  his  dexterous  address 
gained  the  favour  of  Artaxerxes,  who  not  only  assented  to  peace 
on  the  terms  proposed  two  years  before,  but  placed  his  armaments 
at  the  disposal  of  Sparta,  to  enforce  it  on  all  recusant  states. 
Pharnabazus  was  honourably  called  from  the  scene  of  action  by  an 
invitation  to  the  court  and  a  marriage  with  the  king's  daughter, 
and  his  satrapy  was  committed,  during  his  absence,  to  a  personal 
friend  of  Antalcidas.  The  following  were  the  terms  of  the  treaty,  or 
rather  the  edict — for  so  it  was  worded,  in  the  most  degrading  form, 
as  emanating  from  the  will  of  the  Great  King,  and  imposed  by  him 
upon  Greece :  "  King  Artaxerxes  thinks  it  just  that  the  cities  in 
Asia,  and  the  islands  of  Clazomenae  and  Cyprus,  should  belong  to 
him.  He  also  thinks  it  just  to  leave  all  the  other  Grecian  cities, 
small  and  great,  independent — except  Lemnos,  Imbros,  and  Scyros, 
which  are  to  belong  to  Athens,  as  of  old.  Should  any  parties 
refuse  to  accept  this  peace,  I  will  make  war  upon  them,  along 
with  those  who  are  of  the  same  mind,  both  by  land  and  sea,  with 
ships  and  money."  The  exception  to  the  principle  of  autonomy, 
in  favour  of  Athens,  seems  to  have  been  inserted  since  the  first 
negotiation  of  Antalcidas. 

In  the  spring  of  B.C.  387,  Tiribazus  and  Antalcidas  appeared 
on  the  coast,  as  bearers  of  the  decree  under  the  seal  of  the  Great 
King,  and  commanders  of  the  whole  force  of  Persia ;  while  twenty 
ships  were  sent  to  the  aid  of  the  Spartans  by  Dionysius,  the 
tyrant  of  Syracuse.  By  a  skilful  manoeuvre,  Antalcidas  fomied 
a  junction  between  these  ships  and  the  twenty-five  ships  of  Kico- 
lochus,  which  had  been  blockaded  at  Abydus  by  the  superior 
force  of  Iphicrates ;  and  further  reinforcements  from  the  Persian 
satraps  raised  his  fleet  to  eighty  triremes,  the  largest  force  which 
had  appeared  in  the  Hellespont  since  the  battle  of  -^gospotami. 
"SVhile  Athens  trembled  to  hear  that  a  blow  equally  disastrous  had 
befallen  her  fleets  under  Chabrias  and  Iphicrates,  she  was  dis- 
tressed by  the  cutting  ofl"  of  her  supplies  of  corn  from  the  Euxine, 
and  by  the  redoubled  activity  of  the  ^Eginetan  privateei-s.  She  had 
no  choice  but  to  accept  the  peace :  without  her  aid,  Corinth  and 
Argos  could  not  hope  to  repel  the  attacks  of  Sparta :  and  Thebes  was 


B.C.  387.]  PEACE  OF  ANTALCIDAS.  549 

threatened  by  Agesilaiis  with  instant,  war,  when  she  attempted  to 
nullify  the  article  designed  for  her  humiliation  by  signing  in  the 
name  of  the  Boeotian  confederacy.  Not  many  years  elapsed  before 
Sparta  had  reason  to  repent  bitterly  of  her  overbearing  insistance 
and  of  the  triumphant  hatred  of  Agesilaus  to  Thebes.  Meanwhile, 
the  treaty  was  accepted  unconditionally :  and,  as  its  first  result, 
Corinth  was  obliged  to  dismiss  her  Argive  allies,  with  whom  their 
political  friends  left  the  city,  while  the  aristocratic  constitution 
was  restored  by  the  return  of  the  philo-Laconian  exiles. 

Such  was  the  disgraceful  "  Peace  of  Antalcidas,'"  by  which, 
within  a  century  after  the  battle  of  Salamis,  the  Greeks  accepted 
terms  of  peace  from  a  Persian  king,  and  finally  gave  up  their 
Asiatic  colonies  to  his  rule;  not  scrupling  to  perpetuate  their 
infamy  by  inscribing  the  treaty  on  pillars  at  Olympia,  and  the 
other  sanctuaries  of  the  nation.  There  were  not  wanting  patriots 
among  the  Spartans  themselves,  who  viewed  the  matter  in  this 
light.  "  Alas !  for  Hellas,  that  our  Spartans  should  be  Mediz- 
ing ! "  exclaimed  some  one  in  the  hearing  of  Agesilaus,  who  at 
once  rejoined,  "  Say  rather  that  the  Modes  are  Laconizingr  The 
answer  revealed  the  whole  object  of  Sparta  in  the  treaty,  by  which 
she  and  the  Persian  king  were  the  only  gainers.  The  sacrifice  of 
Ionia  was  the  price  paid  for  permission — and  if  it  should  be  neces- 
sary for  assistance — to  restore  the  Lacedaemonian  supremacy  over 
the  rest  of  Greece,  weakened  and  isolated  under  the  hypocritical 
pretext  of  autonomy.* 

Kor  was  Sparta  slow  to  prove  by  deeds  that  such  was  her  real 
object.  The  dissolution  of  the  tie  between  Argos  and  Corinth, 
and  the  aristocratic  revolution  effected  in  the  latter  city,  gave 
Sparta  virtually  the  command  of  the  Isthmus.  As  the  hatred  of 
Thebes  was  a  leading  motive  of  the  treaty,  so  was  she  chosen  for 
the  first  victhn  of  its  real  working,  and  of  the  persistent  hatred  of 
Agesilaus.  While  proclaiming  the  independence  of  the  Boeotian 
cities,  the  Spartans  resumed  their  ancient  policy  of  fostering  local 
oligarchies  friendly  to  themselves.  The  two  cities  which  had 
sided  with  them  in  the  late  conflict,  Orchomenus  and  Thespiae, 
had  their  ind.e])endence  protected  by  the  continued  presence  of 
Lacedaemonian  garrisons.  But  when  Sparta  proceeded  to  rebuild 
Plataea,  and  to  restore  such  of  its  exiled  families  as  could  still  be 

*  See  Mr.  Grote's  careful  exposition  of  the  course  by  which,  from  the  very  begins 
ning  of  the  Peloponnesian  War,  Sparta  declined  from  the  principle  of  Panhellenic  dig- 
nity, and  fell  into  submission  to  Persia  for  the  sake  of  her  own  objects  {History  of  Greece^ 
vol.  X.,  chap.  ^^). 


550  EIVALKY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.      [Chap.  XIV. 

found  at  Athens,  it  must  have  seemed  as  if  the  old  political 
relations  of  the  Hellenic  states  had  been  reversed.  Nor  were 
these  proceedings  adopted  with  the  full  consent  of  the  moderate 
party  in  Sparta  herself.  How  little  she  would  allow,  in  her  own 
case,  the  independence  of  neighboui*s  supposed  to  be  unfriendly, 
was  proved  by  her  treatment  of  Mantinea,  which  was  besieged  by 
the  King  Agesipolis,  her  fortifications  dismantled,  and  her  people 
redistributed  into  their  former  five  open  villages  under  separate 
oligarchical  governments.  Our  great  historian  of  Greece  has 
pointed  out  that  the  political  tyranny  of  this  act  was  its  least  evil. 
"  All  the  distinctive  glory  and  superiority  of  Hellenism — all  the 
intellectual  and  artistic  manifestations — all  that  there  was  of  litera- 
ture and  philosophy,  or  of  refined  and  rational  sociality — depended 
upon  the  city  life  of  the  people.  And  the  influence  of  Sparta, 
during  the  period  of  her  empire,  was  peculiarly  mischievous  and 
rotrograde,  as  tending  not  only  to  decompose  the  federations  such 
as  Boeotia  into  isolated  towns,  but  even  to  decompose  suspected 
towns  such  as  Mantinea  into  villages;  all  for  the  pui-pose  of 
rendering  each  of  them  exclusively  dependent  upon  herself."  * 
While  thus  breaking  up  the  Grecian  world  into  the  smallest 
possible  fragments,  she  endeavoured  to  add  each  unit  to  the  sum 
of  her  own  power  by  restoring  the  oligarchical  exiles  to  the  cities 
which  had  expelled  them. 

In  her  attempt  to  lay  the  foundations  of  renewed  ascendancy 
at  sea,  by  collecting  tribute  from  some  of  the  smaller  islands,  she 
found  a  rival  in  Athens,  who  was  not  likely  to  forego  any  chance 
of  recovering  her  maritime  empire  in  the  iEgsean,  a  nucleus  of 
which  seemed  to  have  been  left  her  by  the  ti'eaty.  In  the  port  of 
Pirteus,  and  in  her  mercantile  navv,  she  had  natural  advantag-es 
of  which  Sparta  was  destitute.  The  commercial  interests  of  the 
lesser  islands  were  identical  with  hers,  especially  as  to  the  need  of 
imports  of  corn ;  and  they  had  no  protection  but  her  navy  from 
the  pirates  that  have  always  infested  their  waters.  Her  adminis- 
tration of  the  sanctuary  at  Delos  not  only  gave  her  a  moral  in- 
fluence over  the  islanders  who  attended  its  festivals,  but  placed  at 
her  command  the  sacred  treasures,  which  she  lent  out  at  interest 
to  them,  establishing  thereby  the  tie  which  binds  the  debtor  to  the 
creditor.  On  such  grounds  she  collected  tribute  from  some  of  the 
islands,  while  others  continued  to  pay  it  to  Sparta ;  and  she  began 
to  build  up  that  new  maritime  power,  of  which  we  shall  soon  see 
her  in  possession.  In  fact,  no  political  arrangements  could  annul  the 

*  Grote,  History  of  Greece,  vol.  x.,  p.  53. 


B.C.  383.J  AFFAIRS  OF  OLYNTHUS.  551 

prescriptive  right  wliicli  Athens  had  long  ago  established  to  supr& 
macy  in  the  waters  of  the  yEgsean. 

This  progress  in  the  power  of  the  two  leading  states  seems  tc 
have  suggested  to  some  enthusiastic  patriots,  that  the  disgrace  of 
the  treaty  of  Antalcidas  might  yet  be  wiped  out  by  a  combined 
effort  for  the  liberation  of  the  Asiatic  Greeks,  who  already  began 
to  complain  of  the  Persian  rule,  while  Artaxerxes  was  occupied 
in  the  war  with  Evagoras  of  Cyprus,  and  in  the  attempt  to  reduce 
Egypt  again  beneath  his  power.*  The  Athenian  rhetorician, 
Isocrates, — the  greatest  composer  of  those  elaborate  and  ornate 
orations  which  are  adapted  rather  for  the  pleasure  of  perusal  than 
for  producing  an  effect  in  public  causes, — pursued  this  theme  in 
his  great  "  Panegyrical  Oration,"  in  which  he  urges  Sparta  and 
Athens  to  undertake  the  common  cause,  while  he  vindicates  for 
Athens  the  post  of  leader,  on  account  of  her  services  to  Greece 
from  ancient  times  (b.c.  380).'!'  But  men's  minds  were  occupied 
with  more  selfish  objects,  and  Sparta  found  about  this  time  a  new 
field  for  her  ambition. 

We  have  seen,  again  and  again,  how  intimately  the  states  of 
the  Chalcidian  peninsula  were  connected  with  the  general  politics 
of  Greece ;  and  we  have  related  how,  as  a  measure  of  protection 
against  Athens,  the  smaller  maritime  states  transferred  themselves 
to  Olynthus.:}:  Meanwhile  the  neighbouring  kingdom  of  Macedonia 
declined  from  the  power  to  which  it  had  been  raised  by  Perdiccas 
and  his  son  Archelaiis,  owing  to  the  assassinations  of  successive 
kings,  till  the  murder  of  the  usurper  Pausanias  by  Amyntas  II., 
the  nephew  of  Perdiccas  II.,  and  father  of  Philip  the  Great 
(b.c.  393).  Scarcely  had  Amyntas  obtained  the  throne,  when  he 
was  driven  to  flight  by  an  invasion  of  the  Illyrians.  He  made  over 
to  Olynthus  the  towns  on  the  coast  which  he  was  unable  to  de- 
fend, including  the  important  ci-ty  of  Pella  (b.c.  392).  A  con- 
federacy now  rose  up,  of  the  Greek  and  Greco-Macedonian  cities 
of  Chalcidice  and  Lower  Macedonia,  under  the  leadership  of  Olyn- 
thus, based  on  the  most  liberal  principles  of  commerce,  intermar- 
riage, and  proprietorship  in  land.  No  combination  could  have  been 
of  higher  promise  for  the  future  liberties  of  Greece,  though  few 
could  have  seen  in  the  fugitive  Amyntas  the  father  of  her  destined 
enslaver.  The  danger  of  returning  beneath  the  yoke  of  Athens 
had  almost  ceased  with  the  catastrophe  in  Sicily,  following  close 

*  See  Chap,  vii.,  p.  140 

f  It  was  about  this  time  that  Demosthenes  was  born,  in  b.c.  382. 

X  See  pp.  486-'7. 


552  RIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBl^ICS.      iChap.  XIY, 

upon  tlie  loss  of  Ampliipolis.  But  there  remained  the  greater 
(hinger  of  Spartan  ascendancy  under  the  guise  of  autonomy. 
Several  of  the  Clialcidic  cities  preferred  that  independence  "which 
was  so  deeply  rooted  in  Greek  sentiment,  to  the  benefits  of  union 
with  Olynthus ;  and,  while  lesser  states  gave  in  their  reluctant 
adhesion,  the  powerful  cities  of  Acanthus  and  Apollonia  refused  to 
join  tlie  league.  Olynthus  was  now  powerful  enough  to  threaten 
to  bring  them  in  by  force ;  and  it  was  no  part  of  Greek  political 
morality  to  shrink  from  such  a  measure,  when  the  whole  confed- 
eracy was  endangered  by  a  recusancy  which  would  ripen^  on  the 
first  foreign  war,  into  hostility.  The  case  is  one  of  those  in  which 
the  concession  of  independence  is  forbidden  by  the  law  of  self- 
preservation, — a  })rin(;i])le  which,  riglit  or  wrong,  has  always  been 
a  powerful  antagonist  to  the  noble  sentiment  of  autonomy.  The 
threatened  states  sought  aid  from  Sparta ;  and  their  representa- 
tions of  the  ambitious  designs  of  Olynthus  were  backed  by  envoys 
from  Amyutas,  who  was  now  restored  to  his  kingdom  (b.c.  383). 

Blind  to  the  real  danger  from  Macedonia,  the  Spartans  pursued 
their  anti-IIellenicpolicy.  The  growth  of  their  new  supremacy  is 
proved  by  their  being  able  to  raise  a  force  of  10,000  men  from  their 
allies.  An  obstinate  war  of  four  yeai*s,  which  cost  the  lives  of 
Teleutias  and  Agesipolis,  was  ended  by  the  reduction  of  Olynthus, 
in  B.C.  379.  The  confederacy,  which  might  have  been  a  barrier 
against  Macedon,  was  dissolved  :  the  Chalcidic  towns  were  added, 
for  a  brief  space,  to  the  Lacedsemonian  alliance  :  and  the  restora- 
tion of  the  maritime  cities  of  Macedonia  to  Amyntas  raised  his 
kingdom  to  the  strength  which,  in  the  next  generation,  proved 
fatal  to  Grecian  liberty. 

Out  of  this  Olynthian  War  there  arose  incidentally  the  worst 
breach  of  faith  ever  committed  by  Sparta — an  act  which,  while 
crowning  her  revenge  on  Thebes,  prepared  the  retribution  for  her 
recent  policy.  The  main  army  sent  against  Olynthus,  under 
Phcebidas,  nuirched  through  Boeotia  without  respecting  the  terri- 
tory of  Thebes.  Phcebidas  was  encamped  at  a  gymnasium  outside 
the  city  on  the  eve  of  the  festival  of  the  Thesmophoria,  at  which 
the  Acropolis  of  Thebes  (called  the  Cadmea,  from  its  mythical 
founder),  was  given  up  by  religious  custom  to  the  women.  The 
Spartan  faction,  headed  by  the  polemarch  Leontiades,  admitted 
Phoibidas  into  the  city  on  a  hot  summer's  afternoon,  when  the 
streets  were  empty.  The  Cadmea  was  seized ;  the  women  who 
were  celebrating  the  festival  were  detained  as  hostages ;  terror  was 
struck  into  the  national  party  by  the  judicial  murder  of  the  other 


B.C.  382.]  THE  SPARTANS  SURPEISE  THEBES.  553 

polemarch,  Ismenias,  and  300  citizen^  fled  to  Athens.  The  indig- 
nation of  Greece  forced  Sparta  to  disavow  Phoebidas,  who  waa 
fined  and  dismissed,  though  Agesilaus  openly  defended  his  con- 
duct ;  but  he  was  soon  restored  to  his  command.  The  Lacedae- 
monians kept  possession  of  the  Cadmea,  and  compelled  the 
Thebans  to  march  as  their  subject  allies  against  Olynthus  (b.c. 
382).  The  city  remained  in  their  hands,  amidst  the  increasing 
disaifection  of  the  people  at  the  tyranny  of  Leontiades,  till  after 
the  close  of  the  Olynthian  War.  ]^or  was  the  discontent  towards 
Sparta  confined  to  the  cities  that  sufiered  directly  under  her 
oppression.  The  rapid  growth  of  her  supremacy,  which  now 
embraced  all  the  continent  of  Greece,  except  Thessaly,  Attica, 
and  Argos,  roused  the  same  feeling  of  mingled  fear  and  hatred 
with  which  the  empire  of  Athens  had  once  been  regarded ;  and 
the  treatment  of  Thebes  and  Olynthus  proved  her  capable  of  the 
worst  political  crimes  of  which  her  rival  had  ever  been  accused. 
The  general  indignation  at  her  alliance  with  Dionysius  of 
Syracuse  found  vent  in  a  demonstration  against  that  tyrant  at  the 
first  Olympic  festival  after  the  peace  of  Antalcidas  (b.c.  384), 
where  the  Athenian  orator  Lysias  delivered  an  indictment  against 
Sparta,  such  as  that  more  elaborately  framed  in  the  "Pane- 
gyrical Oration"  of  Isocrates.  Even  the  philo-Laconian  Xeno- 
phon  marks  the  transition,  at  this  epoch,  from  Sparta's  highest 
power  to  her  deepest  disgrace,  as  a  proof  that  the  gods  take 
careful  note  of  impious  men  and  of  evil-doers;  when  "the 
Lacedaemonians,  who  had  sworn  to  leave  each  city  autonomous, 
having  violated  their  oaths  by  seizing  the  citadel  of  Thebes,  were 
punished  by  the  very  men  whom  they  had  wronged." 

Among  the  Theban  patriotic  party  were  two  friends,  who  had 
been  bound  together  by  one  of  the  strongest  of  all  ties — Epami- 
NONDAs  had  saved  the  life  of  Pelopidas  in  battle  at  the  greatest 
danger  to  his  own.  The  former  was  one  of  the  noblest  and  purest 
characters  of  history.  As  a  youth  he  cultivated  the  training  of  the 
gymnasium  to  its  highest  perfection,  yet  so  as  to  secure  activity 
and  endurance  rather  than  the  mere  strength  of  the  pugilist  and 
wrestler.  He  was  accomplished  in  music,  dancing,  and  elocution. 
He  was  an  ardent  student  of  philosophy,  in  its  two  highest 
schools,  the  Pythagorean  and  Socratic.  He  heard  the  celebrated 
Theban,  Simmias,  and  others  who  had  been  taught  by  Socrates ; 
but  he  cherished  an  almost  filial  friendship  for  Lysis,  an  aged 
member  of  the  Pythagorean  brotherhood,  who  had  been  driven 
into  exile  from  Tarentum.     To  the  patience  with  which  he  was 


664  KIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.      [Chap.  XIV. 

content  to  learn,  rather  than  display  his  own  crude  opinions,  in 
philosophical  discussion,  we  have  the  testimony  of  the  philosopher 
Spintharus,  that  he  never  met  with  any  one  who  understood  more 
or  talked  less.  Endowed  with  a  commanding  eloquence,  he  never 
used  it  to  cultivate  mere  popularity,  but  to  advocate  the  measures 
he  deemed  best  for  the  city.  Though  already  of  middle  age,  he 
had  as  yet  had  no  opportunity  to  call  forth  that  military  genius 
wMch  has  given  him  a  place  among  the  inventors  of  the  art  of 
war :  but  he  had  already  established  the  far  higher  character  of 
integrity,  sincerity,  and  self-controul,  and  he  gave  even  now  a 
proof  of  a  virtue  almost  unknown  to  the  Greek  character,  the 
conscientious  refusal  to  do  evil  that  good  might  come  of  it.  His 
gentle  spirit,  and  his  freedom  from  political  animosities,  raised 
him  above  those  besetting  sins  of  the  Greek  character,  cruelty  to 
conquered  enemies,  and  sanguinary  revenge  of  civil  foes.  His 
modest  and  unambitious  disposition  made  him  content  with 
poverty,  notwithstanding  all  the  offers  of  his  wealthy  friend  Pelo- 
pidas,  and  helped  to  keep  him  firm  against  all  corrupting  overtures. 
His  gentler  virtues  had  already  gained  the  esteem  and  confidence  of 
his  countrymen ;  and  it  only  remained  for  him  to  display  that  power 
of  action  and  capacity  for  afi'airs,  which  extorted  from  Agesilaus 
the  admiring  apostrophe,  "  O  thou  man  of  great  deeds ! " 

Pclopidas  was  much  younger  than  his  friend,  and  could  lay 
little  claim  to  his  combination  of  well-balanced  powers ;  but  he 
was  an  enthusiastic  patriot,  a  daring  man  of  action,  and  a  skilful 
leader.  His  noble  birth  and  great  wealth,  of  which  he  made  a 
generous  use,  had  already  given  him  the  influence  needed  for  the 
enterprise  he  now  meditated.  Pelopidas,  who  was  one  of  the 
Theban  exiles  at  Athens,  contrived  a  secret  con-espondence  with  his 
friends  at  Thebes,  to  organize  a  plot  for  the  liberation  of  the  city. 
Epaminondas,  who  was  at  Thebes,  declined  to  take  part  in  the 
conspiracy,  from  scruples  of  conscience  respecting  t^Tannicide, 
which,  on  his  part  at  least,  were  sincere,  though  few  Greeks  would 
have  shared  them.  He  seems,  also,  to  have  been  influenced  by 
the  improbability  of  success  in  overthrowing  a  government  upheld 
by  1500  Spartan  troops.  The  chief  manager  of  the  conspiracy  was 
Phyllidas,  whose  position  as  secretary  to  the  polemarchs,  Archias 
and  Philippus,  gave  him  the  means  of  introducing  Pelopidas  with 
a  few  chosen  exiles,  who  were  to  assassinate  them  at  a  banquet, 
to  which  they  were  invited  on  the  pretence  of  meeting  some 
Theban  women  of  rare  beauty.  The  invitation  was  accepted,  and 
on  the  eve  of  the  appointed  day  the  seven  exiles  came  straggling 


B.C.  379.]  CONSPIRACY  OF  PELOPIDAS.  555 

into  Thebes,  in  the  disguise  of  countrymen,  and  were  concealed  in 
the  house  of  Charon,  one  of  the  conspirators.  It  seemed  as  if  the 
goddess  Nemesis  had  laid  her  grasp  U23on  the  infatuated  victims. 
The  feast  had  already  begun,  when  a  message  from  Athens  created 
some  vague  distrust ;  and  Charon  w^as  alarmed  by  a  summons  to 
attend  the  polemarchs.  He  found  them  half  intoxicated ;  and 
Phyllidas  aided  him  in  lulling  their  suspicions.  Presently,  how- 
ever, a  letter  arrived  from  Athens  for  Archias,  describing  the 
whole  plot  in  detail ;  and,  to  ensure  his  attention,  the  messenger 
had  been  instructed  to  say  that  it  was  on  serious  business.  The 
precaution  defeated  itself.  "Serious  business  for  to-morrow," 
said  Archias,  as  he  thrust  the  letter  beneath  his  pillow,  and  called 
for  the  women  to  be  introduced.  The  drunken  senses  of  the  pole- 
marchs were  awake  to  but  one  idea  when  they  saw  the  seven 
figures  draped  in  ample  robes,  their  attempt  to  lift  which  was 
repaid  by  the  dagger's  thrust.  Leontiades  was  slain  in  his  own 
house,  after  a  vigorous  resistance  ;  the  gaol  was  opened,  and  the 
prisoners  armed.  Epaminondas  now  came  forward,  with  a  few 
devoted  friends ;  the  citizens  were  summoned  to  meet ;  the  free- 
dom of  Thebes  was  proclaimed ;  the  conspirators  were  crowned 
with  garlands  ;  and  Pelopidas,  Charon,  and  Mellon  were  named 
Boeotarchs.  The  rapid  advance  of  the  remaining  Theban  exiles, 
with  a  band  of  volunteers  from  Athens,  cut  ofl'  all  aid  to  the 
garrison  from  Thespise  and  Platsea ;  and  the  Lacedsemonians  in 
the  citadel  made  a  cowardly  capitulation.  After  various  party 
conflicts,  which  we  cannot  stay  to  trace,  Athens  joined  Thebes  in  a 
new  alliance  against  Sparta  (b.c.  378).  But  this  was  only  the 
beginning  of  a  new  confederacy,  on  the  model  of  that  of  Delos, 
which  speedily  embraced  seventy  cities.  Timotheus,  a  worthy 
successor  of  his  father  Conon,  took  the  chief  part,  with  Chabrias, 
in  its  orgaaization.  Great  care  was  taken  to  avoid  those  points 
which  had  become  odious  in  the  old  maritime  empire  of  Athens. 
The  "  tribute,"  for  example,  became  a  "  contribution,"  and  Athens 
herself  was  assessed  to  a  property  tax,  a  source  of  revenue  reserved 
for  great  emergencies.  The  Thebans  completed  their  military 
organization,  and  Pelopidas  enrolled  the  famous  "  Sacred  Band  " 
of  300  hoplites,  chosen  from  the  youth  of  the  best  families, 
specially  for  the  defence  of  the  Cadmea.  Epaminondas  took  an 
active  part  in  the  preparations  for  defence  (b.c.  3Y8). 

In  this  and  the  following  year  Agesilaus  invaded  Boeotia,  and, 
avoiding  a  pitched  battle,  ravaged  the  Theban  territory  (b.c.  378, 
377).     Being  lamed  by  a  wound,  he  gave  up  the  command  to 


656  RIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.      [Chap.  XIV 

Cleombrotus,  who  was  repulsed  by  the  Thebans  at  tlie  passes  of 
Cithgeron  (b.c.  37G).  The  Spartans  now  resolved  to  invade  Boeotia 
by  sea ;  but  their  fleet  was  totally  defeated  by  Chebrias,  ofi"  Kaxos, 
and  Athens  was  once  more  mistress  of  the  seas.  The  battle  of 
Naxos  was  the  first  great  naval  victory  gained  by  the  Athenians 
since  the  Peloponnesian  "War.  They  hailed  it  as  the  revenge  for 
yEgospotami,  and  followed  up  the  advantage  by  sending  a  fleet 
into  the  Ionian  Sea  under  Timotheus,  who  added  Cephallenia, 
Corcyra,  and  Acarnania  to  the  Athenian  alliance  (b.c.  375). 

Meanwhile  the  Thebans  had  made  equally  rapid  progress  by  land ; 
and  all  the  cities  of  Boeotia,  except  Orchomenus,  had  submitted  to 
them  by  the  end  of  the  year  b.c.  374.  It  was  in  an  expedition 
against  Orchomenus  that  Pelopidas  performed  one  of  his  most 
daring  feats  of  valour.  Having  failed  to  surprise  the  city,  he  was 
returning  with  only  the  Sacred  Band  and  a  few  cavalry,  when  he 
found  himself  surrounded  by  a  Spartan  force  twice  as  numerous  as 
his  own.  "  We  are  fallen  into  the  midst  of  the  enemy ! "  exclaimed 
one  of  his  followers.  "  Why  so,  more  than  they  into  the  midst  of 
ns,"  replied  Pelopidas  ;  and  his  words  were  made  good  by  a  deci- 
sive victory.  The  two  states  grew  jealous  of  each  other's  success, 
and  they  found  mutual  causes  of  complaint.  Athens,  pressed  by 
the  expense  of  the  war,  and  by  the  ^ginetan  privateers,  called 
for  a  contribution  from  the  allies,  which  Thebes  refused  to  pay ; 
while  Thebes  had  oflfended  Athens  by  the  invasion  of  Phocis,  her 
old  ally.  The  Athenians  made  a  separate  peace  with  Sparta, 
and  recalled  Timotheus  from  the  Ionian  Sea ;  but,  in  the  very  act 
of  returning,  that  commander  put  an  end  to  the  new  treaty  by 
restoring  some  exiles  to  Zacynthus,  a  proceeding  for  which  Athens 
refused  satisfaction.  The  Spartans  now  sent  a  large  fleet  to  take 
Corcyra ;  and  the  city  was  reduced  to  great  distress,  when  the 
besieged,  taking  advantage  of  the  carelessness  and  disorder  of  the 
Spartan  army,  made  a  sally  and  slew  the  general  Mnasippus.  The 
Lacedosmonians  evacuated  the  island  on  the  approach  of  an  Athe- 
nian fleet  under  Iphicrates,  Chabrias,  and  Callistratus ;  and  Iplii- 
crates  again  occupied  the  same  commanding  position  in  the  Ionian 
Sea,  which  Timotheus  had  held  the  year  before  (b.c.  373). 

The  rapid  alternations  of  this  Seven  Years'  War  had  again 
brought  down  Sparta  to  a  position  not  unlike  that  which  she 
occupied  before  the  Peace  of  Antalcidas.  She  sought  the  same 
remedy ;  and  sent  the  successful  negotiator  once  more  to  Persia, 
to  complain  that  the  allies  had  violated  the  treaty  and  to  ask  foi 
supplies  of  money.     But  this  time  Antalcidas  had  no  colonies  in 


B.C.  371.]  PEACE  OF  CALLIAS.  551 

Asia  to  offer  as  a  bribe ;  and  the  orilj  result  of  his  mission  was 
an  empty  mandate  from  the  satraps  of  Asia  Minor,  that  the  Greek 
states  would  settle  their  differences  on  the  basis  of  the  former 
edict.  But  in  the  mean  time,  Thebes  had  given  Athens  a  new 
ground  of  discontent,  or  rather  of  indignation.  Platsea,  restored 
by  Sparta  for  her  own  objects,  began  to  look  to  Athens  as  her 
natural  protector,  and  sought  for  readmission  to  her  citizenship. 
The  ancient  jealousy  of  Thebes  was  again  roused  against  the  devoted 
city.  Once  more  were  its  inhabitants  expelled,  and  driven  for 
refuge  to  Athens  :  once  more  was  their  town  destroyed  and  their 
territory  added  to  Thebes ;  while  the  Thespians  also  were  com- 
pelled to  raze  their  fortifications  because  of  their  supposed  lean- 
ings to  Athens  (b.c.  372). 

The  "  Plata'ic  Discourse  "  of  Isocrates  expresses  the  feelings  of 
the  Athenians  at  these  insults  to  themselves,  for  in  that  light 
they  regarded  them.  They  opened  negotiations  for  peace,  sup- 
ported by  nearly  all  the  allies,  except  Thebes.  In  the  spring  of  b.c. 
371,  a  congress  was  assembled  at  Sparta  of  the  respective  allies  of 
Lacedsemon  and  Athens,  and  Thebes  was  invited  to  send  deputies. 
The  envoys  of  Athens  were  Callias,  the  head  of  one  of  the  greatest 
of  the  old  families,  Autocles,  and  the  orator  Callistratus  ;  among 
those  of  Thebes  was  Epaminondas,  who  then  held  the  oflice  of 
Boeotarch.  The  Athenians  took  the  lead  in  the  conferences ;  and 
their  orator,  Callistratus,  laid  the  basis  for  the  treaty  in  the 
principle  of  autonomy, — the  real,  and  not  merely  nominal  inde- 
pendence of  each  city, — to  be  enjoyed,  however,  consistently  with 
such  supremacy  as  the  two  leading  states  might  acquire  by  the 
accession  of  voluntary  allies, — Sparta  by  land,  and  Athens  on  the 
sea.  The  garrisons  and  Spartan  harmosts  were  to  be  withdrawn 
from  the  subject  cities.  The  peace  was  concluded  on  these  terms, 
which  tacitly  deprived  Thebes  of  her  headship  of  the  Boeotian 
confederacy. 

Epaminondas,  who  had  protested  vehemently  against  Spartan 
ambition  as  the  cause  of  all  the  recent  troubles,  reserved  his  last 
effort  for  the  following  day,  when  the  oaths  were  taken,  first  by 
Sparta  for  herself  and  her  allies,  next  by  Athens  for  herself  only, 
followed  by  her  allies  severally.  It  was  now  the  turn  of  Thebes ; 
and  when  Epaminondas  insisted  on  taking  the  oaths  in  the  name 
of  the  Boeotian  confederacy,  he  was  opposed  by  the  Spartans 
and  most  vehemently  by  Agesilaus.  In  an  eloquent  speech,  he 
rebuked  the  arrogance  of  Sparta,  and  maintained  that  her  supremacy 
in  Laconia  was  no  better  founded  than  that  of  Thebes  in  Boeotia. 


558  RIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.     [Chap.  XIV. 

Stung  by  this  boldness,  Agesilaus  interrupted  liiin  witli  the  ques- 
tion— "  Will  you,  or  will  you  not,  leave  to  eaeli  of  the  Boeotian 
cities  its  independence  ? "  The  rejoinder  was  as  pointed — "  Will 
you  leave  each  of  the  Laconian  towns  independent  ?  "  Agesilaus, 
for  his  only  answer,  struck  the  name  of  the  Thebans  out  of  the 
treaty,  which  is  known  in  history  as  the  Peace  of  Callias  (b.c.  371, 
June). 

The  Spartans  lost  no  time  in  carrying  out  their  threats  of  ven- 
geance against  Thebes,  now  left  without  an  ally.  Cleombrotus, 
who  was  in  Phoeis,  was  ordered  to  march  into  Boeotia.  Skilfully 
evading  the  army  with  which  Epaminondas  occupied  a  defile  on 
the  main  road  near  Coronea,  he  descended  upon  Creusis  on  the 
Crissean  Gulf,  where  he  seized  twelve  Tlieban  triremes.  Having 
thus  secured  his  communications  with  Sparta  by  sea,  instead  of 
through  the  defiles  of  Cithseron,  he  marched  inland,  and  encamped 
on  the  plain  of  Lecctra,  between  Thespise  and  Plataea.  His  fii*st 
successes  had  spread  a  discouragement  in  the  Tlieban  army,  which 
was  increased  by  threatening  portents ;  but  their  spirits  revived 
when,  on  reaching  the  field  of  Leuctra,  a  Spartan  exile  pointed 
out  the  tombs  of  two  maidens  of  the  place,  who  had  slain  them- 
selves after  being  outraged  by  Lacedaemonians,  and  whose  time  of 
revenge  was  now  come. 

The  battle  of  Leuctra  is  memorable  for  the  new  tactics  invented 
by  Epaminondas.  The  force  of  the  respective  armies  is  not  cer- 
tainly known,  but  the  Thebans  were  decidedly  inferior  in  number, 
and  their  Boeotian  troops  could  not  be  relied  on.  In  place  of  the 
usual  Greek  tactics,  in  which  two  armies  confronted  each  other  in 
lines  as  nearly  equal  in  length  and  depth  as  their  numbers  would 
allow,  and  the  battle  was  joined  along  the  whole  front  at  once, 
Epaminondas  collected  his  choicest  troops  on  his  left,  in  a  close 
column  fifty  deep  (more  than  its  width  in  front),  to  oppose  the 
Spartans,  who  were  drawn  up  twelve  deep  on  the  right,  under 
Cleombrotus  himself.  JS'ot  only  was  the  great  plan  thus  secured — 
which  was  revived  in  modern  warfare  by  Napoleon — of  directing 
an  overwhelming  force  upon  one  point  of  an  enemy's  line,  but  by 
withdrawing  his  centre  and  right  wing  enechelo7i,  Epaminondas 
kept  them  back  till  his  chosen  troops  had  borne  the  first  brunt  of 
the  encounter.  The  disposition  was  triumphantly  successful.  The 
Theban  column,  headed  by  the  Sacred  Band,  crushed  the  Lacedae- 
monian right.  Cleombrotus  was  slain,  and  400  out  of  the  TOO 
Spartans  in  the  field  fell  with  him.  Their  allies  on  the  centre 
and  left,   many    of  whom  were   disaffected,  afforded   an  easy 


B.C.  362.]  BATTLE  OF  MANTINEA.  559 

victory  to  the  Boeotians.  The  Spartans  made  that  most  complete 
confession  of  defeat,  the  praying  for  a  truce  to  bury  their  slain ; 
but  the  bodies  only  were  restored  to  them,  and  the  shields  were 
exhibited  centuries  later  at  Thebes  as  a  trophy  of  the  victory. 

The  battle  of  Leuctra,  gained  by  the  Thebans  within  three 
weeks  after  their  exclusion  from  the  Peace  of  Callias,  was  received 
by  all  Greece  as,  what  in  truth  it  was,  a  death-blow  to  the  supre- 
macy of  Sparta,  and  a  proof  that  a  new  military  power  had  arisen 
in  Hellas.  We  can  but  briefly  notice  the  short  and  brilliant 
period  of  the  ascendancy  of  Thebes,  for  we  have  reached  the  limits 
of  a  chapter  which  the  immense  mass  of  important  details  has 
extended  far  beyond  its  anticipated  limits : — 

"  Sed  nos  immensum  spatiis  confecimus  aequor, 
Et  jam  tempus  equum  fximantia  solvere  colla." 

Having  thoroughly  established  their  supremacy  over  the  Boeo- 
tian cities,  and  extended  their  alliances  in  itTorthern  Greece,  the 
Thebans  assumed  the  ofiensive  against  Sparta.  Four  times  did 
Epaminondas  lead  his  army  into  Peloponnesus.  In  the  first  in- 
vasion, the  city  of  Sparta  w^as  only  saved  by  the  energy  of  Age- 
silaus,  and  Epaminondas  accomplished  two  great  measures,  which 
finally  reduced  her  to  a  state  of  the  second  rank, — the  restoration 
of  Messenia,  with  its  new  capital  of  Messene  on  Mount  Ithome, 
and  the  consolidation  of  forty  Arcadian  townships  into  the  new 
city  of  Megalopolis,  afterwards  so  famous  in  the  days  of  the 
Achaean  League  (b.c.  369).  We  must  hasten  over  the  compli- 
cated struggles  of  the  following  years  in  Peloponnesus,  which 
arose  chiefly  out  of  the  new  pretensions  of  the  Arcadians ;  the 
alliance  of  Athens  with  Sparta,  through  jealousy  of  Thebes  (b.c. 
369) ;  the  mission  of  Pelopidas  to  Persia,  to  secure  the  supremacy 
of  Thebes ;  and  the  events  in  the  north  of  Greece ;  to  the  close  of 
the  brilliant  career  at  once  of  Epaminondas  and  his  country  at  the 
battle  of  Majsttinea  (b.c.  362).  The  dying  exclamation  of  Epami- 
nondas— "I  have  lived  long  enough,  for  I  die  unconquered  " — was 
the  farewell  to  that  glory  which  he  alone  had  obtained  for  Thebes ; 
and  his  last  breath  was  spent  in  bidding  his  countrymen  make 
peace.  Pelopidas  had  fallen  two  years  before  at  the  battle  of 
Cynoscephalae  in  Thessaly  (b.c.  364).  All  parties,  except  Sparta, 
were  content  to  join  in  a  general  pacification,  on  the  basis  of  the 
status  quo,  recognising  the  new  constitution  of  Arcadia,  and  the 
independence  of  Messene.  To  this  last  article  Sparta  would  not 
consent ;  but  her  spirit  of  practical  resistance  was  confined  to  the 


600  RIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.      [Chap.  XIV. 

aged  Agesilaiis,  who,  in  liis  eightieth  year,  sought  a  new  field  for 
his  restless  energy  in  Egypt.  After  aiding  Nectaneho  II.  to  ob- 
tain the  crown,*  he  died  on  his  road  to  Cyrene,  b.c.  361. 

After  the  pacification,  the  power  of  Thebes  speedily  collapsed 
in  a  manner  that  shoM'ed  how  completely  she  owed  her  sudden 
elevation  to  the  brilliant  qualities  of  her  few  great  statesmen. 
Sparta  was  finally  fallen.  The  new  power  of  Arcadia  was  yet  in  ■ 
its  infancy.  A  dull  pause  appears  to  fall  upon  the  scene  of  energy 
and  conflict,  while  the  exhausted  states  await  the  new  destiny 
which  was  prepared  for  them  by  the  accession  of  Philip  to  the 
throne  of  Macedonia  (b.c.  359).  Athens  alone  seemed  to  retain, 
in  her  free  constitution,  her  maritime  power,  and  her  succession 
of  able  statesmen,  vigour  enough  to  become  the  champion  of 
Hellenic  life  and  liberty.  The  long  train  of  matchless  orators, 
who  ruled  the  debates  of  her  ecclesia  and  pleaded  causes  in  her 
courts,  had  been  crowned  by  the  first  appearance  of  Demosthenes, 
in  his  eighteenth  year  (b.c.  364).  Her  drama  was  still  flourishing, 
though  her  tragedians  were  no  longer  comparable  to  ^Eschylus, 
Sophocles,  and  Euripides,  and  the  satire  of  the  Old  Comedy  had 
passed  into  the  comparatively  pointless  Middle  Comedy.  It  was 
not  till  the  following  generation  that  the  New  Comedy  of  manners 
and  intrigue  flourished  in  the  hands  of  Philemon  and  Menander. 
Plato  was  still  alive,  and  Aristotle  was  twenty-four  years  old ;  but 
the  great  sects  of  philosophy  were  yet  in  their  infancy.  The  art  of 
Phidias  had  lost  none  of  its  beauty  in  the  hands  of  Scopas  and 
Praxiteles  ;  and  painting  was  approaching  the  perfection  which  it 
afterwards  reached  in  the  hands  of  Apelles.  These  fair  fruits 
from  the  root  of  Hellenic  liberty  attained  their  perfection  as  the 
stem  that  bore  them  began  to  wither. 

We  must  not  close  this  chapter  without  one  hasty  glance  at  the 
fortunes  of  the  Sicilian  Greeks,  from  the  defeat  of  the  Athenians 
to  a  period  somewhat  later  than  the  present  epoch.  The  repulse 
of  the  Athenian  attack  on  Syi*acuse  was  followed  by  a  succession 
of  party  contests,  which  ended  in  the  triumph  of  the  aristocratic 
party  under  the  celebrated  Dionysius,  who  seized  the  tyranny  in 
the  same  year  that  w^itnessed  the  close  of  the  Peloponnesian  "War 
(b.c.  405).  He  terminated  a  long  series  of  conflicts  with  the 
Carthaginians  by  a  peace  in  b.c.  393 ;  and  he  had  reduced 
most  of  Sicily  and  Magna  Gra?cia  beneath  his  rule  by  b.c.  384 
Syracuse  was  now  only  second  to  Athens  in  the  extent  and  splen- 
dour of  its  buildings,  docks,  and  fortiflcations,  and  to  Sparta  in 

*  See  chap,  vii.,  p.  140. 


B.O.  367—346.]       DIONYSIUS  THE  YOUNGER  AND  DION.  561 

political  influence.  Dionysius  was  a.  warm  friend  to  Sparta,  and 
we  have  more  than  once  had  occasion  to  allude  to  the  succours  he 
sent  her.  He  was  a  munificent  patron  of  literature,  in  which  he 
himself  so  far  excelled  as  to  have  his  poems  recited  at  Olympia, 
and  to  carry  off  prizes  for  his  tragedies  at  Athens.  But  the  caprice 
of  the  despot  was  shown  in  his  dislike  to  the  lofty  morality  of 
Plato,  whom  he  is  said  not  only  to  have  dismissed  from  his  court, 
but  to  have  consigned  to  slavery,  from  which  the  philosopher  was 
rescued  by  a  friend. 

Dionysius  the  Elder  died  in  b.c.  367,  and  was  succeeded  by  his 
son  of  the  same  name.  The  younger  Dionysius  was  greatly  influ- 
enced by  Dion,  the  brother  of  his  father's  second  wife,  and  the 
enthusiastic  disciple  of  Plato.  The  philosopher  was  again  induced 
by  Dion  to  visit  the  court  of  Syracuse,  which  l^ecame  a  pattern  of 
philosophic  moderation.  But  JEschylus  had  said,  "  This  vice  is 
somehow  inbred  in  tyranny — to  distrust  friends."  Dionysius  was 
taught  to  believe  that  the  philosopher  was  in  league  with  Dion  to 
dethrone  him.  Dion  was  forced  to  embark  without  a  moment's 
warning  for  Italy ;  and,  after  a  time,  his  property  was  seized  to 
enrich  the  courtiers.  Plato,  having  made  his  escape  from  the 
capricious  lenity  of  Dionysius,  and  having  again  ventured  back 
to  intercede  for  his  friend,  finally  left  Syracuse,  not  without  difii- 
culty,  and  met  Dion  at  the  Olympic  festival  in  b.c.  360.  The 
news  he  brought  of  the  tyranny  of  Dionysius,  and  of  his  outrages 
on  the  family  of  Dion,  incited  the  latter  to  an  effort  for  the  des- 
pot's overthrow.  In  the  summer  of  b.c.  357,  he  landed  in  Sicily 
with  800  men,  and,  favoured  by  the  absence  of  Dionysius,  with  a 
great  part  of  his  fleet,  on  the  coast  of  Italy,  he  marched  to  Syra- 
cuse in  the  night,  and  at  sunrise  his  little  force  was  seen  approach- 
ing the  gates,  their  heads  crowned  with  garlands,  as  in  a  festival 
procession.  They  were  welcomed  as  deliverers ;  but  it  was  not 
till  after  a  conflict  of  some  months  that  Dion  became  master  of 
the  whole  city  (b.c.  356).  The  possession  of  power  proved  fatal 
to  his  philosophic  liberalism ;  his  acts  of  tyranny  were  the  more 
odious  from  the  hopes  he  had  disappointed ;  and  he  fell  a  victim 
to  the  ambition  of  his  intimate  friend  Callippus  (b.c.  353).  After 
seven  years  of  intestine  conflict  between  successive  tyrants,  the 
exiled  Dionysius  became  once  more  master  of  the  city  (b.c.  3-i6). 
But  his  power  was  precarious ;  other  despots  ruled  in  the  neigh- 
boming  cities ;  and  the  Carthaginians  threatened  to  be  the  only 
gainers  by  the  confusion. 

Once  more,  as  in  olden  times,  the  Syracusans  sought  .aid  in  their 

VOL.  I.— 36 


562  RIVALRY  OF  THE  GREEK  REPUBLICS.     lCbcap.  XIV. 

extremity  from  their  mother-city ;  and  a  liberator  was  found  in 
t]ie  person  of  Timoleon,  a  man  who  united  the  civic  patriotism  of 
the  Greek  with  the  inflexiljle  sternness  of  the  Roman. 

Space  fails  us  to  relate  how,  with  most  inadequate  means,  he 
succeeded  in  the  enterprise ; — how  Dionysius  was  again  expelled 
(B.C.  343);  the  tyrants  of  the  other  cities  put  do^\Ti;  the  vast 
hosts  of  Carthage  defeated  at  the  Crimisus,  and  a  treaty  concluded 
with  the  Carthaginians  (b.c.  338).  A  nobler  moral  victory 
crowned  all  tliese  exploits,  when  Timoleon,  refusing  the  temptation 
to  assume  the  tyranny,  retired  to  the  private  house  in  Syracuse, 
which,  with  a  modest  estate,  had  been  granted  him  for  his  serv'ices. 
His  real  reward  was  in  the  gratitude  of  his  new  fellow-citizens, 
who  always  received  him  with  enthusiastic  plaudits  in  the  public 
assembly,  and  on  his  death,  a  few  years  after  the  completion  of 
his  work,  followed  him  to  the  grave  with  univei-sal  mourning,  the 
only  tears  he  had  ever  made  them  shed.  He  died  in  the  same 
year  as  Philip  of  Macedon  (b.c.  336). 

Meanwhile  the  younger  Dionysius  had  retired  to  Corinth,  where 
he  amused  his  literary  tastes  with  the  instruction  of  public  singers 
and  actors,  and  by  opening  a  school  for  boys.  Historians  and 
moralists  have  never  tired  of  viewing  the  two  Dionysii  as  types  of 
the  Nemesis  of  tyranny, — the  insecurity  of  its  enjoyment,  the 
humiliation  of  its  loss.  The  lesson  is  trite,  but  there  are  those 
who  are  ever  needing  to  learn  it.  The  sleepless  suspicion  of  the 
elder  despot  is  symbolized  by  the  "  Ear  of  Dionysius,"  a  chamber 
into  which  concealed  air-tubes  conducted  the  complaints  of  the 
captives  in  his  vast  dungeons.  His  ceaseless  terror  was  taught 
by  himself  to  the  flatterer  Damocles,  whom  he  placed  at  a  most 
luxurious  banquet,  with  the  naked  sword  suspended  over  his  head 
by  a  single  hair.  Many  a  despot  has  since  experienced  reverses  as 
strange  as  those  of  the  younger  Dionysius ;  .but  the  time  has  not 
yet  come  to  withhold  the  warning 

"  That  Corintli's  pedagogue  may  now 
Transfer  his  byword  to  thy  brow." 


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and  inanntTS  in  the  great  Metropolis.  Unlike  most  novels  that  now  appear,  it  has  no 
'mission,"  the  author  being  neither  a  politician  nor  a  reformer,  but  a  story  teller,  according  to 
the  old  pattern;  and  a  cajiital  story  he  has  produced,  written  in  the  happiest  style,  and  full  of 
wit  and  acliou.  lie  evidently  knows  his  ground,  and  moves  over  it  with  the  foot  of  a  master. 
It  is  a  work  that  will  be  read"  and  admired,  unless  all  love  for  good  novels  has  departed  from 
us ;  and  we  know  that  such  is  not  the  case."' — Boston  Traveltr. 


The  History  of  Civilization  in  England. 

By  IIenut  Thomas  Buckle.     2  vols.,  8v6.    Cloth,  $6. 

"  Whoever  misses  reading  this  book,  will  miss  reading  what  is,  in  various  respects,  to  the 
best  of  our  judgment  and  experience,  the  most  remarkable  book  of  the  dav — one,  indeed,  that 
no^  thoughtful,  inquiring  mind  would  miss  reading  for  a  good  deal.  Let  the  reader  be  as 
averse  as  he  may  to  the  writer's  philosophy,  let  him  be  as  devoted  to  the  obstnictive  as  Mr. 
Buckle  is  to  the  progress  party,  let  him  be  as  orthodox  in  church  creed  as  the  other  is  hetero- 
dox, as  dogmatic  as  his  author  is  sceptical — let  him,  in  short,  find  his  prejudices  shocked  at 
every  turn  of  the  argument,  and  all  his  prepossessions  whistled  down  the  wind— still  there  is 
so  much  in  this  extraordinary  volume  to  stimulate  reflection,  and  excite  to  inquiry,  and  pro- 
voke to  earnest  investigation,  perhaps  (to  this  or  that  reader)  on  a  track  hitherto  untrodden, 
and  across  the  virgin  soil  of  untilled  fields,  fresh  woods,  and  pastures  new— that  we  may  fairly 
defy  the  most  hostile  spirit,  the  most  mistrustful  and  least  sympathetic,  to  read  it  through 
without  being  glad  of  having  done  so,  or  having  begun  it,  or  even  glanced  at  almost  any  one 
of  its  pageS,  to  pass  it  away  unread." — New  Monthly  {London)  Magazine. 


The  Iron  Manufacture  of  Great  Britain, 

'  Theoretically  and  Practically  considered :  Including  Descriptive  Details  of  the 
Pres,  Fuels,  and  Fluxes  employed ;  the  Preliminary  Operation  of  Calcina- 
tion ;  the  Blast,  Refining,  and  Puddling  Furnaces ;  Engines  and  Machinery ; 
and  the  Various  Processes  in  Union,  etc.,  etc.  By  W.  Truran,  C.  E.,  for- 
merly Engineer  at  the  Dowlais  Iron  Works,  under  the  late  Sir  John  Guest, 
Bart.  Second  EcUtion,  revised  from  the  manuscripts  of  the  late  Mr.  Truran, 
by  J.  Arthur  Phillips,  author  of  "  A  Manual  of  Metallurgy,"  "  Records 
of  Mining,"  etc.,  and  Wm.  H.  Dorman.  One  vol.,  imperial  8vo.  Contain- 
ing 84  Plates.     Price,  $10. 

Illustrations  of  Universal  Progress. 

A  Series  of  Essays.  By  Herbert  Spencer,  Author  of  "  The  Principles 
of  Psychology;"  "Social  Statics;"  "Education."  1  volume,  12mo. 
Cloth,  81  75. 

"The  readers  who  have  made  the  acquaintance  of  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  through  his  work 
on  Education,  and  are  interested  in  his  views  npon  a  larger  range  of  subjects,  will  welcome 
this  new  volniiie  of  '  Essays.'  Passing  by  the  more  scientific  and  philosophical  specnlations, 
we  may  call  attention  to  a" group  of  articles  upon  moral  and  political  subjects,  which  are  very 
pertinent  to  the  present  condition  of  atfairs." — Tribune. 


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